Jean
Claude-Waffo, team leader of the International Civil Aviation Organisation ((ICAO), said on Monday that the organisation’s officials were in the country again ‘to access the country’s capacity to regulate air transport in compliance with its standards.
Claude-Waffo spoke at the opening ceremony of the ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit programme (USOAP) for Nigeria at Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
He said ICAO will continue to monitor Nigeria even after the audit, adding that the do not wait till the next phase.
The last audit was conducted in 2006.
“We are going to refresh the data we have at the headquarters, we are assessing the capacity of the State to regulation the sector in compliance with ICAO, all the possible evidence and additional questions on site will be assessed.
“We are on continuous monitoring approach where we monitor the State based on the information they provide, if we have a finding during this exercise, we will continue to monitor it for the adjustment and classification of Nigeria”, he said.
Earlier, Capt. Muhtar Usman, director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), in his address, said the ultimate goal of USOAP is to promote global aviation safety through regular audits of safety oversight in all ICAO states.
In addition, it is aimed at determining the State’s level of ICAO safety-related standard s and Recommended practices with associated procedures and guidance material.
“An analysis of our safety oversight establishment has been done including a review of the implementation of Annexes’ provisions and the differences from the Standards and Recommended Practices that were identified in the State Aviation Activity Question air and compliance checklists.
“Let me inform you that the audit is at the On-Site phase during which the State is visited by an ICAO audit team to validate the information provided by Nigeria, the team will therefore conduct an on-site audit of Nigeria’s system and overall capability for safety oversight”, he said.
Usman noted further that “Nigeria is absolutely ready for the audit, the Authority has left no some unturned and all hands were put on deck to ensure adequate preparation”.
“Successive audits have been concluded with successes all the way. In retrospect, Nigeria scored over 90 percent in the counterpart ICAO security Audit conducted last year. This was an exercise where Nigeria was one of the countries in the world to go through the Universal Security Audit Programme (USAP) continuous monitoring approach”, he added.
By: Sade Williams
