The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has urged the National Assembly to increase its share of the statutory 5 per cent aviation revenue pool from 22 per cent to 56 per cent.
Managing Director of NAMA, Farouk Umar, made the request at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives committee on aviation.
According to him, the rising cost of maintaining safety-critical infrastructure was putting increasing pressure on the country’s air navigation system and the existing revenue-sharing formula no longer reflects the scale of the agency’s statutory responsibilities or the financial burden of keeping Nigeria’s airspace safe.
Umar noted that the safety of the aviation sector depends on strong and adequately funded institutions, and that the regulator must be strong, meteorological services dependable, accident and incident investigation independent, and aviation training excellent.
He argued that increasing the allocation to 56 per cent would not raise the existing 5 per cent ticket sales charge (TSC) but would redistribute the available revenue to the agency responsible for critical air navigation infrastructure.
“Long before a passenger boards an aircraft, NAMA’s personnel and systems are already at work. A flight plan must be processed, aeronautical information must be current. Radios must be clear. Navigation aids must be serviceable. Surveillance must be available. Controllers must be at their positions. Engineers must be ready to respond. Power and backup power must hold,” Umar said.
The managing director said the cost of keeping Nigerian airspace safe had outgrown the existing funding formula, noting that the agency recorded a total cost profile exceeding N43 billion in 2023.
He said the expenditure included approximately N21 billion in personnel costs, more than N12 billion in capital expenditure and over N10 billion in overheads.
Umar said NAMA has continued to operate with a navigation charge of N11,000 per flight, a tariff that has remained unchanged since June 2008, despite rising costs of fuel, electricity, foreign exchange, imported components, software licences, and specialist training.
He also warned that the total radar coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) system requires urgent renewal, noting that ageing surveillance infrastructure and increasing cybersecurity risks demand sustained investment in modern technologies, including digital aeronautical information, satellite-enabled surveillance and integrated flight-data systems.
The NAMA boss further asked lawmakers to recognise obstacle assessment and WGS-84 aeronautical surveys as chargeable technical services provided by the agency.
The managing director also urged the lawmakers to harmonise existing aviation laws, noting that while the Civil Aviation Act currently provides a 22 percent allocation to NAMA, the NAMA Act refers to 23 percent in its fund provisions.
