The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has assured stakeholders that the nation’s airspace remains one of the safest on the continent of Africa for air navigation.
Speaking while declaring open the demonstration of Aircraft e-Clearance User Acceptance Test Module to National Air Defence Corp, Security Agencies and other stakeholders in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the Ag. managing director of NAMA, Engr. Emma Anasi noted that the agency in the recent past has deployed sophisticated technology and navigational infrastructure intended to enhance efficiency in its operations as well as safety of air travel in the country, stressing that the deployment of Aircraft e-Clearance Solution was another innovation by NAMA to automate its operations and also ease the process of aircraft flight clearances which used to be very tedious and cumbersome in the past. Engr. Anasi who was represented on the occasion by the Port Harcourt Airspace Manager, Mr Gabriel Akpen explained that the huge investment NAMA was making in automating its processes is in line with global best practices. He therefore assured that the agency was ready to accommodate all the views and suggestions from stakeholders on how the system could be made to function better. Earlier in his address, the Deputy General Manager, Aircraft Clearance Office, Mr Patrick Nebe recalled apart from its inherent vulnerability to manipulations detrimental to national security, the old system of manually granting aircraft clearances was fraught with other challenges such as unnecessary bureaucracy leading to loss of valuable time, stressing that the urgency with which some flights operate necessitated a quicker system of processing flight clearances for them. Nebe also explained that the Aircraft e-Clearance Solution has inbuilt security and tracking device which helps users to keep track of their request for flight permit as well as the general aircraft movement within the nation’s airports. The demonstration of Aircraft e-Clearance software to stakeholders which had earlier held in Lagos, Abuja and Kano centres has been lauded by stakeholders including Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, minister of Transportation, as a time-saving innovation.