13th October, 2015
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority says it is making adequate preparations to ensure that Nigeria performs excellently at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Audit in November.
The NCAA’s Acting General Manager, Public Relations, Mr Sam Adurogboye, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.
NAN reports that Nigeria had performed excellently in the nine-day audit conducted on the nation’s aviation security system by ICAO international auditors earlier in June.
Adurogboye said that the NCAA was working with other aviation agencies toward sustaining the achievements recorded so far in the sector.
“We are preparing for another comprehensive audit by ICAO in November. We are getting ready for the audit because we cannot go to sleep.
“We have been making adequate preparations through training and retraining of our personnel.
“The ICAO requirement is that you must have skilled personnel in sufficient number and that is what the NCAA is doing right now,’’ he said.
Adurogboye also explained that the ongoing audit of domestic airlines by the NCAA was geared toward improving air safety and security in the country.
According to him, the audit of airlines is not just financial audits. We carry out audit of airlines from time to time.
“For example, financial audits are carried out particularly when you notice certain things like an airline being unable to pay staff salaries.
“That gives you an idea that all may not be well with the airline and we have to alert the other safety directorates to beam their searchlights on the airline to prevent anything untoward from happening.
“We also carry out a comprehensive system check where we look at the aircraft, we look at maintenance, we look at the personnel and their qualifications as well as issue of insurance of both the aircraft and the crew.
“So, this is a continuous process aimed at ensuring safety and security in the aviation sector and it is in line with the directive of the Civil Aviation Authority.’’