NCAA,Airlines Agree On Debt Settlement Plan
| Airlines operating in the country that are indebted to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have reached a compromise on how best they can defray their debt of nineteen billion Naira(N19bn) and seven million dollar($7m) owed the Agency. The Director General of the Nigerian Civil Authority,Capt.Musa Nuhu told members of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation who were on oversight tour of the Agency at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos. “Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has reached a compromise with airline operators in the country to ensure that debts owed the agency are reconciled and payment plan agreed on that would be favourable to all concerned” He said that between now and 2024, it will be developing all its regional offices providing adequate training, manpower to ensure that the regulatory agency provides its services in all books and cranny of the country. According to the Director General, who expressed some of the immediate needs of the NCAA, the regulator understands the difficulty brought by the pandemic and will institute a payment plan that will be favourable to both the agency and operators. Speaking On the need to develop regional offices to reduce the cumbersome nature of regulation and ensure its gets to the operators,”we are empowering five regional offices to ensure that the job in smaller areas get done and they do not have to refer to Lagos or Abuja. It brings regulation closer to the operators outside Lagos and Abuja.” ” Already Port Harcourt takes care of of the south East and south-south buyer are looking at opening a regional office in Enugu for the South East. We are looking at another one in either Maiduguri or Yola for the North East, Ilorin for the middle-belt and Uyo or Calabar for the South-South. The DG also explained that training for the inspectors and other regulatory staff are key to the agency and that the NCAA was competing for manpower especially pilots and engineers with airlines that pay better . Captain Nuhu however said it was key because these inspectors with the CAA needed more training to be better or r par with the trends in the industry so they an do their job better and that the only way to retain these pilots and engineers was to make the remuneration nearly at par with the airlines to keep them. Reacting, the Chairman House Committee on Aviation,Honourable Nnaji Nnaji said the House was on its oversight function and would look at what the NCAA has done and intends to do with what as been allocated and would be allocated to them. He also commended the NCAA for a job well done especially during the peak of the pandemic and how the regulatory agency handled it. |
