BY OLAPEJU OLUBI
The Managing Director, Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Engineer Tayib Odunowo, has applauded the proposal to exempt federal government agencies from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), describing it as a game changer that would allow it manage its financial resources efficiently.
Conversations around yanking off some agencies from the TSA arrangement have deepened under the Tinubu administration, with the Federal Capital Territory taking the lead to be insulated from the arrangement.
Odunowo, at an interactive session with the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) over the weekend, stated that NAMA has projects to deploy but for the challenge of funding, which has been worsened by the incredible bureaucratic bottlenecks involved in accessing funds via the TSA.
He added that the Agency was cash-strapped and operationally choked as its funds are trapped with the airlines who are yet to pay up.
He pointed out that NAMA’s case was more hurtful as it no longer enjoys intervention funds from the federal government, unlike before when it got such assistance to fund special projects.
“Now, NAMA is 100 per cent self-funded and even with those funds, we are losing 40 per cent to the federation account.
“If that could occur (TSA removal), honestly, we would thrive and that is why we have been asking for this 40 per cent removal because it is really affecting us,” he stressed.
On debts owed the agency, he said NAMA is bleeding and its being owed a lot, adding that NAMA raised its charges last 10 years ago.
“We have issues of debt. Let me paint a picture for an hour operation in Ilorin Airport; the charge is N50,000. They don’t have power and so we run on generators. That cost is about N500,000 per hour given what it powers.
“Now, we have not talked about the manpower whose time is extended; the ATCs, firefighters and all other technical people. The N50,000 charge for that extension is worth it?” he queried.
Odunowo, however, said he has introduced a business re-engineering process in the Agency since his assumption of office a few months ago.
He lamented the lack of proper synergy among the agencies in the industry, saying he was working on a synergy with the Director of Civil Aviation Authority to soften the operating environment.
The NAMA boss also said he was building synergy among personnel of the organisation and has constituted a project review committee to review NAMA’s 20 ongoing projects across the country.
He further said that a Controller-to-Pilot information sharing forum has been created so that NAMA management now interacts with pilots across the country.
Reeling out more of the challenges, he said Nigeria needs automation especially in this era of airspace modernisation.
According to Odunowo, the Agency was working on engaging in training to aid the challenge of capacity building in NAMA.
Also commenting, NAMA’s Director of Finance & Accounts, Hamza Mustapha, said with the TSA of the federal government, NAMA had no other means of keeping money.
He noted that NAMA was exited from the federal government’s intervention fund last year while it remits 40 per cent of its annual revenue to the federal government.
He, therefore, called on the government to exit NAMA from the TSA so it can manage its own budget and revenues
NAMA’s Director of Operations, Mr. Lawrence Pwajok, on his part queried why its sister agency (Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) cannot pay for services it receives from NAMA, meanwhile NAMA pays the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) for its services.
“We pay a service charge of 10 per cent to NiMet from our revenue and for every training we do at NCAT we pay. We can’t see why our sister agency FAAN cannot pay for services provided for airports.” he said.
