Why Nigerian airports remain uncertified

Indications emerged at the weekend that none of the nation’s airports had been certified more than 35 years after they were built because they were yet to meet requirements stipulated by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). The reasons why the nation’s airports remained uncertified came on a day the President, National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies, (NANTA), Alhaji Aminu Agoha, said that the recent devaluation of the naira has led to a slight drop in the number of people travelling within or outside the country.

New Telegraph gathered that the items on the checklist had to do with two major issues – security and safety, which have not been complied with to get the classification and regulation they require. The security aspect has to do with control of access to the airport’s sterile areas or airside and the security of other major points such as the catering departments, boarding gates, check-in points and perimeter fencing.

The safety feature, on the other hand, involves the runway light, taxiway light, approach light, fire station and airport emergency response system, among others. Equally worrisome is the rot in the nation’s aviation sector that experts said may have found deep expression in the assessed parlous infrastructural facilities bedeviling the gateways over the years, with little succour coming from the much publicised remodeling scheme.


Source: New Telegraph | By Wole Shadare 
For complete report, click link original report