Nigeria has again maintained its lead in aviation safety and security on the continent as it has come out successfully in the just concluded International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) safety audit.
At the end of the rigorous exercise which lasted for one week with the ICAO team subjecting the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to scrutiny to check the level of compliance to safety rules and standard in line with the global benchmark, Nigeria has
scored 70% of the ICAO Universal Safety Audit Program Continuous Monitoring Approach (USOAP)- CMA that ended on Monday, September 11th. 2023.
This latest score which is 3% higher than the last audit score of 2016 where the Nigeria scored 67.1% has been attributed to the high compliance of the country’s aviation sector led by the regulatory body the NCAA to global aviation safety standards.
The audit which took place between August 30 and September 11, 2023 focuses on the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s capability in providing safety oversight by assessing whether the State has implemented the critical elements (CEs) of the safety oversight system effectively and consistently.
According to ICAO, this enables the State to ensure the implementation of ICAO’s safety-related Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and associated procedures and guidance material, and also provides ICAO with a means to monitor continuously the States’ (Nigeria) fulfilment of their safety oversight obligations.
The breakdowns of some of the audit reports in Effective Implementation ( EI)shows the Nigeria CAA in Legislation scored 90%, a reduction from the 95% it scored in the last audit while it scored 83% in Organisation compared to its 100% score in the last dispensation.
Under the Personnel Licencing the NCAA scored 84% while it scored 62% in operations compared to its last score of 57%.
For Airworthiness the CAA scored 94% compared to its previous 90% in the last audit while the audit for Accident Investigation got a resounding 89% five points up from its previous 84% score.
In the area of Aerodrome and Ground Aids, the country scored 56% while for Air Navigation Services it scored 44%.
The audit report for the eight(8) Critical Elements CE-1 Legislation, CE-2: Organisation, CE-3: Regulations, CE-4: Qualified Technical personnel; CE-5: Technical guidance material, CE-6: Approvals and certification, CE-7: Surveillance and CE-8: Resolution of safety concern was also available.
The NCAA maintained its last score of 89.66% in the area of Legislation while it scored 89.87% in Organisation, 78.33% in Regulations and 60.98% in Qualified Technical personnel.
In Technical guidance material, it scored 88.24% and 49.7% in Approvals and certification while in Surveillance and Resolution of safety concern it had 42.22% and 56.76% respectively.
