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Louis Ibah
The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has pledged to support the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) with increased budgetary allocation for the infrastructure upgrade of air communication, surveillance, and navigational aids.
Chairman of the committee, Nnolim Nnaji stated this yesterday during a tour of NAMA facilities at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos by the legislators.
Nnaji who decried the poor state of road infrastructure in the country, said many Nigerians now travel by air, and that there is the need to put on ground requisite facilities that would support safety of aircraft and passengers.
“Right now, we are having a lot of challenges and difficulties on our roads and a lot of people prefer to travel by air. It is not the time we should play with our air services; it is the time for everybody to come together to see how we can support the aviation industry and to support the various projects that NAMA plans to execute.
“NAMA is a very critical agency that provides air navigational aids. We will do everything possible to make sure that it becomes the best in Africa. During budgetary allocations, we will make sure we push to see how the agency will get some funds for projects that are uncompleted. It is very important that every agency in the aviation industry come together to move the industry forward,” he said.
Managing Director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu appealed for increased budgetary allocation to the agency to undertake some critical safety projects.
The NAMA boss lauded members of the committee for the visit, saying the country has recorded much progress with the Total Radar Coverage (TRACON), Instrument Landing Systems, and the Aeronautical Information Systems (AIS) projects. He said investments in these projects had made the Nigerian sky safe for air travel.
“It is good that NASS members are here to see what we have, what we need, and what we need to upgrade. We have gotten approval for the upgrade of TRACON; we will soon do that. There is no point for NAMA to be stagnated. Technology is changing. The committee will help us to catch up in some of the areas where we need more funding,” he said.
