Deliberations, reports and recommendations from Dronetecx, an annual program on Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) have significantly shaped its policy framework in Nigeria thereby improving and redefining the operations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), popularly known as drones, organiser of the program, Fortune Idu, has said.
Idu, who is also the chairman of FCI International, ,said at the 6th edition of the program on Tuesday that even though, the program started with uncertainty, it has greatly changed the face, operations and regulations of UAVs in Nigeria.
Drones are widely used for aerial photography, surveillance, infrastructure inspection, agriculture, and military missions.
Idu noted that significantly, part 21 Regulations was launched immediately after the first edition of the program due to massive campaign.
“The impact on this sector is amazing, that’s how I can describe it. We have initially when we started, thought we’re just venturing into a terrain that will remain very passive for a very long time, but the actions have been very spontaneous in terms of the actions and responses to what we are doing and the support we got from them, which propelled us into doing a lot of research.
“Part of the changes you are seeing today as it relates to this industry is actually coming from the report from dronetex. The ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development and the CAA take our reports seriously because it’s not individual reports. It’s the contribution and feedback from everyone it concerns as it relates to safety concerns, as it relate to security and concerns that relate to the future of the industry last two years back.
“But you see it’s growing every year and more people are coming out then secondly, the part 21 regulation was released immediately after the first program because were campaigning for it to be released. And next, we came up with advocacy for policy framework development and that is also on board right now, as I speak, the Ministry of aviation and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority are working on the policy framework.”, he said.
Another aspect of its contribution was get authorized buy into including UAV, US and drone operations in the national aviation master plan.
Idu revealed that what was on ground as it relates to drone was just on the aviation policy document which was only two paragraphs and not more than twenty words, ‘but today,, you have a full comprehensive document as a matter of fact, the drone or UAV has not only been included in the master education master plan, which is just being released but it also has a roadmap, which is also shows what we want to do. So these are the things that came with our effort. And then finally, this our effort is also pushing the CAA into considering opening up a seamless for of registration for flyers. You know who are in the recreational level, what we call the Open category before this time, were not actually captured in the registration, the operations are very technical, these ones who operate within this small level like those you see carrying the cameras, those who are in the playground, children and their parents who want to just fly drone for fun of it.
“There is a security and safety implication, but that was not addressed properly. And so you find out that these people just fly, but now an opportunity is given to capture them. The first thing is that the CAA has to capture them into their system, so they recognise that they exist, they document them and the give regulation and enforcement. We are lso we are creating the awareness platform for this to happen. So those are the things we have done. So for me, I think drone tech actually in a very short period of its existence has actually lived up to his expectations. “, he added.
