By Chinelo Obogo
With stakeholders raising concerns over aging airport facilities amid growing passenger demand, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has called for increased funding to bridge critical infrastructure gaps. The valid appeal has become vital because sustained underinvestment could undermine operational efficiency and jeopardise Nigeria’s standing in regional and global aviation.
Dr. Lukman Emiola, FAAN’s Director of Human Resources and Administration, who made the appeal in an interview, also created a path out of the funding challenge.
This includes retaining a larger portion of FAAN’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and reinvesting it in infrastructure upgrades.
According to him, the current FAAN administration, led by the Managing Director, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, is working to transform Nigeria’s airports.
He noted that with proper funding, Nigerian airports would compete strongly with leading terminals worldwide and provide world-class services for air travelers.
How are you harnessing the current skill set of the workforce you have towards achieving your goal?
The focus of the aviation industry is experience. Experiences are derived from training personnel and also ensuring compliance with international certification bodies to close gaps found in various audits carried out over time. So, we have strategically focused a lot on this, and we are addressing these issues one after the other, ensuring that we achieve close to 85% personnel training per annum. We are just one year and a few months into this, and we have taken it very seriously, especially in the critical safety departments: security and safety operations.
The objective of FAAN, led by our Managing Director, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, whose determination to correct some shortcomings of the past knows no bounds. She is determined to ensure that the agenda of President Bola Tinubu is evident in our airports.
How are you sourcing your materials for training? Are you still spending much money for some of them to go abroad for training, or are you utilising your training school?
We collaborate extensively, locally and internationally. We have trained some of our trainers to be able to conduct some of these in-house programmes. Where necessary, with international organisations that are certified by ICAO and IATA. We have adopted training programmes from them. We have ensured that we recognise the personnel who require this training so that we do not encourage favouritism or nepotism. People who deserve to take this training are identified. The training needs are also identified. The resources required for the training are sourced, and adequate timetables for this training are maintained. Our training school has been resuscitated with the right personnel, and our training plans are also aligning with what the organisation requires in two ways: to train and also to generate revenue.
How effectively does FAAN align its personnel skills with available operational equipment to fulfill its responsibilities?
One of the pillars of the Olubunmi Kuku-led administration is infrastructure expansion, and you don’t put the cart before the horse. First, there have to be relevant work tools for trained personnel to have their hands on. So, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku has strategically pursued these two provisions headlong: the right equipment, scanners, baggage scanners, body scanners. All of these have been procured and installed across our airports, and we have tried to make sure that we train our personnel to be able to handle this equipment. That way, you are able to achieve meaningful results and this is our focus. We believe that by the time we are done with our first four-year mandate, we would have repositioned some of these highlights in such a way that the general public will come to terms with the fact that we remain very focused.
Looking at what you have been able to put in place, would it be right to say that FAAN may have to outsource some of its technical personnel to other airports within the West and Central Africa region?
The answer is yes, because one thing that is evident in the Nigerian civil service is the availability of proven and capable personnel, and technical personnel for that matter. FAAN is loaded with the competency required for any smart airport operation in the whole world. What they have lacked previously is the willpower, the leadership support for them to excel, and that is what we have brought back in terms of human resources, capacity development, and support for individual initiatives that are not injurious to the organisation. Our staff can compete favourably, helping other African nations or agreeing to second them. We have been invited to so many conferences and workshops, and we have presented papers. I just came back from Amsterdam, where I made a presentation at the Smart Airports for Europe and America conference, and my presentation has also earned us another invitation to the United States. So, we have an understanding of what is expected of us globally, related to people with different experiences. We can compete.
In terms of resources, how much funding do you think is needed that might directly address COVID-related setbacks or any intervention to take the training capacity we are looking at to its peak?
What I know about resources is that you can never have enough of them. Airports are a global cycle for every nation, and there are daily contemporary innovations coming up. For you to compete, certain equipment becomes obsolete, and they need replacement. So, when these situations arise, we have to provide that kind of replacement, therefore, we need more support. We generate more money. We support the government purse. We are looking at the government giving us more of what we generate to be able to plow it into infrastructure development. We will need more money to excel, because globally, things change every day in terms of people, infrastructure, and work environment. We are talking about the green areas, staff, aviation fuel revolution, and so many other things related to airports. Airports are not just parks where planes take off and land anymore. They have become exhibition booths and entertainment hubs. So, you need more money to be able to achieve this. Sustainable Development Goals are all tied to it. All of these are derived from the conferences you attend. You see a lot of innovations in terms of technology, AI, etc. All of these are tied around it, so you need more money to achieve this.
Staff wages
Our focus on the optimal performance of our workforce is to make sure they get what they deserve. We aim that if we make 100%, we are determined to ensure that our staff get at least 40% from that 100% to encourage them. The federal government increased the minimum wage in July last year. At that time, we were already working with our current budget, and we needed to plan to be able to assess what we could accommodate at that time. We had only been in our positions for six months then, so we went back to the drawing board. Besides, we needed some levels of approval from our ministry and other stakeholders before we could implement it. So, within our calculations, when we looked at the numbers, we were able to appeal to our union executives to show us understanding to allow us to prepare. With our very robust relationship with the union executives, they permitted us, and we made that promise, so we had the responsibility to fulfill it.
When we got all the approvals to implement the minimum wage, we were already in arrears, and because we didn’t want to be socially irresponsible, we went back and calculated their arrears. When we calculated, we saw that we could break it down in batches. So, we paid staff the arrears; we don’t want to be in debit or deficit with them. We want them to believe that whatever we say, we will be able to keep. So, we paid their arrears. As of this month, I think we paid the August, September, October, and November arrears to our staff and we also implemented the minimum wage, so that gave them a significant boost. We have also determined to complete the December, January, February, and March arrears this coming month. So, we just want to prove to them that we are responsible, and when we say we will do things, we will do them. So that’s what we did. Okay.
What timeline are you giving yourself to upskill what is expected?
We have spoken to our safety departments, the operations department, and the engineering department. They have provided us with all those gaps. We have started closing some of them with some of the training we have approved. We are sending some of our fire personnel for training, crew commanders for training, and marshallers for training. All of those areas we have identified through the data we have gathered. We have determined the numbers, we have looked at our budget, and we are in discussion with some of the stakeholders. So, we have already started addressing these issues before we go into another set of audits, because we want to raise the bar. We want to take our airports from a lower category to a higher one so that before we leave, perhaps, we will be competing favorably with the best in the world. From the justifications we have so far, the staff are willing. They are happy, and we don’t want to stop.
How has it been managing the human resources of FAAN?
As the Director of Human Resources, I have the responsibility of managing almost over 10,000 staff across the country, and every day, everybody has complaints. They have issues they want to resolve, they have outstanding matters to be addressed. What I’ve done is to ensure that I listen to all of them as much as possible, and I ensure that my team also operates on the same wavelength as me. I’ve tried to instill in them that leadership is not about the big office or the big title. It’s about the support. Even if someone comes to you and you cannot solve their problem, let that person leave with the assurance that someday something can be done. So, the psychology of how to speak to people, the psychology of giving them those assurances, is part of the strategies that have been brought to bear in doing this work.
Collaboration is one of the strategies you use for efficiency and FAAN has partnered with many governments and many international organisations to achieve this. Using that as a template, what much more do you want to put in the basket?
FAAN collaborates effectively with the NCAA, NSIB and NAMA. All of us in the top hierarchy meet to discuss issues generally. Secondly, external stakeholders, state governments, organizations coming and offering support, even private entities offering that support to say, “We can do this on your behalf,” and PPP is an instrument for development, so we are embracing it.