26th April, 2015
By Simon Ateba
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) said on Sunday that it has completed the calibration of navigational aids across the country, ten days after the operation began.
The calibration of navigational aids is an inspection of electronic signals at airports to ensure they are safe and accurate and are of international standard.
The calibration was managed by NAMA engineers and a technical team from ASECNA, an air traffic control agency based in Dakar, Senegal, that manages 16.1 million square kilometres of airspace and covers six flight information regions.
ASECNA Air Traffic Control centres are based at international airports in Antananarivo, Brazzaville, Dakar Oceanic and Terrestrial, Niamey and N’Djamena.
NAMA public relation department quoted the leader of the ASECNA calibration team, Engr. Nganan Jorim, as expressing delight over what he referred to as “the most successful calibration exercise in recent time.”
“The report of the calibration indicated that the navigational aids are in a very perfect condition for safe flight operations,” Jorim was quoted as saying.
NAMA also quoted the Director General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Abdulahi Alhassan, who led the Ghanaian delegation to NAMA headquarters in Lagos as saying that he was delighted and impressed by the capacity and performance of the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) equipment in guaranteeing safety of air navigation in the country.
“We are highly impressed with what we have seen here, both in terms of technical infrastructure and human capacity to effectively man these facilities and guarantee safety of air travel in the country,” Alhassan was quoted as saying.
He also mentioned the lingering dispute between Ghana CAA and ASECNA.
The Managing Director of NAMA, Engr. Ibrahim Abdulsalam assured his guests that Nigeria was disposed to a peaceful and amicable resolution of dispute betwen Ghana CAA and ASECNA.
“We are committed to co-operating with both Ghana and ASECNA in our determination to ensure safety of the African sky,” he said.
Abdulsalam also promised to open a line of communication with ASECNA on the possibility of the three organisations meeting at the WACAF office in Dakar and amicably resolving the issues.