Decade-old geriatric tools, budget deficits: NAMA’s strategic modernisation plan

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Farouk Ahmed Umar, has revealed that the agency has made significant progress in overcoming critical operational hurdles since his appointment three years ago, despite persistent financial constraints and ageing infrastructure.

Speaking to Aviation Metric in Abuja at the weekend, Umar detailed the state of the country’s Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS) architecture when the administration took office in 2023, outlining the steps taken to modernise Nigeria’s airspace.

Farouk Umar, NAMA MD

Addressing the initial challenges, the NAMA chief noted that the nation’s airspace communication framework was severely inadequate to handle modern traffic demands.

“The communication architecture of Nigerian airspace when the government came in in 2023 was not totally in good shape,” Umar stated. “The first thing we did was to ensure that my team and I redesigned it in such a way that it would meet the needs of present airspace demand.”

Beyond communication, the agency encountered deeply entrenched issues with navigation infrastructure, much of which had exceeded its operational lifespan.

“We realised that most of the navigational equipment is obsolete,” Umar explained. “An average electronic system’s lifespan doesn’t go beyond 10 years. These are instruments that have served for more than two decades, and we decided that we just have to replace them.”

Efforts to execute comprehensive replacements, however, hit a wall due to severe funding limitations and a strained Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) base.

“Unfortunately, funding is not there. The Internally Generated Revenue is nothing to write home about,” Umar lamented. “As soon as you address workers’ salaries, claims, and some creditors, you won’t be able to do many other things.”

He emphasised that the current national economic reality requires the agency to rely on government interventions and adopt a phased, incremental approach to infrastructure development.

“We all know the economic situation in the country. We have so many demands, and one would not expect the whole country’s earnings to be channelled into addressing this single challenge. It has to be a gradual process, so we decided to approach it piecemeal.”

Highlighting surveillance as the most vulnerable component of the CNS spectrum, Umar disclosed that the existing radar and tracking infrastructure was functionally compromised even at the time of its initial deployment.

“The surveillance system is the worst of all,” he remarked. “The surveillance system, as it were, is scary. It has outlived its original functionality. Even at the time it was installed, it was near obsolete because it took us nine years to install it. Most of the deliverables at that time were dead on arrival.”

Despite these limitations, Umar assured the flying public that safety standards remain intact through rigorous maintenance and professional oversight.

“Because of our commitment and professionalism, we are able to keep the system working. The airspace is not at risk, but there is great room for improvement. I must say this unequivocally. I am trying to make sure that we keep to ICAO’s slogan: ‘No Country Left Behind.'”

To address national security threats, including insurgency, banditry, and illicit flights entering Nigerian airspace undetected, NAMA submitted a specialised technological proposal to the Presidency.

“Faced with these enormous challenges, we made a proposal to the Presidency, which graciously granted approval for us to search for technology that addresses Nigeria’s current security peculiarities, such as Boko Haram, banditry, and allegations of unauthorised aircraft dropping weapons,” Umar noted.

The initiative aims to unify civilian air traffic control with military defence capabilities through a synchronised command system.

“We thought deeply that there is a need to redesign the nation’s surveillance architecture to serve both civil operations and a military command-and-control system. It is a dual surveillance system that we are proposing,” he explained.

Umar confirmed that high-level security stakeholders, including the Minister of Aviation, Minister of Defence, Chief of Air Staff, and technical directors from both NAMA and the Nigerian Air Force, have convened to align on the project. However, execution hinges entirely on special financial intervention.

“We don’t have the money. We are waiting for intervention, and we are still pushing for it,” Umar added, reiterating NAMA’s plea for adequate funding while noting that regulatory perceptions have at times complicated their financial drive. “All this desire is to ensure that these issues are solved, but unfortunately, the regulator is not seeing it from that angle.”

Wole Shadare