NAMA tasks air navigation providers in Nigeria on effective peer review

Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has urged Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) in African and Indian Ocean Region (AFI Region) to freely embrace and implement the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) resolution on the formation of peer groups for the periodic review of their Safety Management Systems (SMS) implementation levels.

Managing Director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, gave this charge at the opening of a two-day peer review meeting of AFI ANSP Peer Review Team 3 in Lagos.

Akinkuotu said only an effective peer review of safety systems and procedures among ANSPs in the region could enable Africa to build upon its rising safety profile and make the continent more competitive in the global aviation industry.

Akinkuotu, who was represented by the Director of Safety Electronics and Engineering Services, Farouk Umar, said the time had come for African ANSPs to harmonise and synergise their safety systems and procedures by bringing members up to speed with industry best practices  with the ultimate goal of achieving a single African sky.

The NAMA boss assured members of the peer review team that the agency shares the same concerns with ICAO and its partners, including the Civil Air Navigation Service Organisation (CANSO) and International Air Transport Association (IATA), and is also committed to ensuring that the envisaged benefits of the peer review programme are fully actualised.

He called on members to freely criticise the agency’s SMS implementation strengths and weaknesses, as this exercise would serve as a learning curve in its quest to step up our SMS effective implementation level.

Director of African Affairs, Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO), Boni Dibante, noted that the objective of the peer review mechanism among ANSPs was to address some of the challenges ANSPs in the AFI region are facing.