The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), is expected to be among the over 800 national and international cross-sectoral participants from the tourism and transportation industry at the maiden edition of the Tourism Transport Summit and Expo slated to hold from 21st-22nd of May, 2018 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
The event is an Annual Summit and Expo that will provide a suitable forum for key players and stakeholders in the private sector and counterparts in the public sector represented by parastatals under both the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Information and Culture to brainstorm on the most needed synergy with the objectives of deepening the connectivity between Tourism and Transportation for maximum inclusive growth and sustainable development of the Nigerian economy.
The role of NAMA in the Nigerian aviation industry is very key in sustaining the sector for enhanced growth, safety and development having been created to develop the Nigerian airspace infrastructure to a level consistent with the requirements of the ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) which it consistently pursued since its inception in 1999.
As part of its functions, any person, corporate or non-corporate, who wants to fly in an aircraft into the Nigerian Airspace has to start by filing the application to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority which issues a checklist of safety and operational conditions to be met. When the safety and operational conditions are met, NAMA is contacted with evidence of the NCAA Authorization. Thereafter, upon meeting some safety, operational and commercial terms, the applicant obtains a joint NAMA/NCAA clearance to enter, or overfly into the Nigerian airspace.
As an air navigation services provider, the Agency, through its personnel (i.e. Air Traffic Controllers) that are in the radio room is in communication with every flying aircraft in the airspace. Therefore, NAMA’s participation at the Tourism Transport Summit and Expo with the Theme: ‘Tourism and Transportation, the Key Sectors for Sustainable Growth and Development,’ is indeed timely and commendable.
This is because the event offers a unique opportunity for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and key players in the tourism and transport sectors of the economy to engage in an all-inclusive discourse aimed at creating synergy, collaboration and connective inter-play between the two sectors for the maximum economic benefit of the country whose focus at the moment is on diversification to other highly productive sectors which the transportation and tourism readily provide.
The TourismTransport Summit and Expo would also deliberate on the complex relationships between transport provision and tourism hinged on global perspectives in forging a mutual relationship between the two sectors reappraise and have a better understanding of the importance of tourism and transportation to the economy, and their impact on employment generation at this crucial period of high level of unemployment.
The summit, which is being organised by the Institute of Tourism Professionals, is coming on the heels of the 15th National Council on Transportation meeting held in Sokoto in August 2017, where the need arose to have collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Transportation and other government and non-government agencies, along with private stakeholders across the transportation modes, and the tourism and hospitality value chain for sustainable economic growth and development.
To this end, the Ministers of Tourism and Transportation are expected, for the first time, to form a synergy and explore the benefits that abound from the mutual link to create the environment for inclusive growth and sustainable development.
Participants at the event would be drawn from key players in the transportation and tourism sectors such as air transportation, airlines, tour and travel operators, administrators of the aviation industry, maritime industry, sea transport, boats and sea cruise operators, major road transport owners, car hire services, Uber, NURTW, RTEAN, Road Traffic and Safety Agencies, including the Federal Road Safety Corps, and Motor Vehicle Insurance Companies among a host other lined organizations.
