Posted by Sade Williams
Director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) Capt. Nuhu, has said that the Authority recorded a 40 percent drop in its revenue between December 2019 and November 2020.
This is just as he lamented the 25 percent remittance into Consolidated Revenue Fund, saying the proposal to increase it to 40 percent will spell doom for the regulatory body.
He made the disclosure when the Senate Committee on Aviation, led by Senator Smart Adeyemi, paid an oversight visit to the regulatory body’s office at Lagos airport, at the weekend.
According to him, ” We recorded a significant drop in revenue between December 2019 and November 2020, it was 40 percent. We know that 85 percent of out income come from the Ticket Sales Charge (TSC), and of course, there were no flight, no passenger, no operations.
” We are also mandated to pay 25 percent of our revenue to the Consolidated Account, there is even a plan for it to be increased to 40 percent but we are not recovering cost, we are actually operating at a loss.”, he said.
While asking the Senate to help the Authority stabilise its revenue and reposition for efficient oversight function, Nuhu also revealed that the cost for the issuance of an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) in Nigeria is only $500 while that of Gambia is a whooping $200,000, lamenting that the amount is too small compare to what obtains in many African countries.
“We are in a tight situation and things are very difficult for us, we really need help from the National Assembly” , he added.
He disclosed that training and welfare of staff were among the areas with biggest expenses, adding that the Authority has established an in-house capacity training to handle some mandatory ones, pending the full lifting on travel ban.
He also hinted that the Authority has set up a committee to look at establishing additional regional offices to adequately cover the nation.
“Good services should be rendered to airlines and other companies at the regional offices and not just only in Lagos or Abuja” .
He appealled to the Senate to urgently pass the bill for the repealing of the Act, saying, ‘the new gives us a new mandate on what we are allowed to do’.
Responding, Adeyemi assured that all the bills of the sector would be passed in the next two months.
“Some of the issues raised have been debated thatvthe public hearing but I can assure you that we will effect changes in the areas you have itemised, in the next one or two months, we should be able to pass all the bills before us” , he said.
