N10bn debt: NAMA to re-introduce ‘pay as you go’ as deadline draws close

•  Agency survives on IGR amid dwindling revenues

As the deadline draws closer for airlines to reconcile their debts, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has said there was no going back in its action to recover close to N10billion owed it by airlines.

Speaking to Woleshadarenews, Managing Director of the agency, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, said NAMA has concluded plans to re-introduce the Pay As You Go system to airlines before they are cleared for take-off.

To give effect to this directive, the management of NAMA has sent letters to all the operators that, “you will have to obtain a payment clearance from the Commercial Department at any airport of departure before operation.”

The agency, it was learnt, took this step in view of the huge debts owed it by the airlines on service provision which include air traffic services within the Nigeria’s airspace of which their total joint indebtedness was a little above N9billion between 2003 to date.

This system of cash and carry was first introduced by former Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze as the last resort to recover monies owed it and to prevent the back and forth face-off between airlines and NAMA because of lack of documentation to know exactly what the carriers owed before that period.

To curtail mounting debts, the former Minister met with NAMA and airlines on acceptable debts reconciliation by ensuring that services were offered only when they had been paid for.

The system worked for a short period before her successor, Stella Oduah, curiously abrogated the plan. Since then, airlines indebtedness to NAMA has continued to mount astronomically, leaving the airspace agency in a rather precarious situation.

Akinkuotu disclosed that information at his disposal from the Commercial Department of his agency did not show that the airlines were ready to reconcile their debts with them, re-assuring that NAMA would do whatever it could to recover debts owed it.

The agency had on February 3, 2020 notified debtor private /state owned airport operators and airlines that effective February 28, 2020, “our services will no longer be available for the operation of their airports or airlines as the agency can no longer keep its personnel working at airports without payment.”

NAMA majorly depends on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for sustenance, adding only about three private/state-owned airports that had come up to reconcile their debts.

His words: “We have not reneged on the deadline given to airlines and private airports operators to come forward and reconcile their debts. Private airport operators have been coming forward to reconcile their debts.

“We have concluded plans to offer pay as you go services to airlines. They have not come to us. It is possible they have gone to our Commercial Department but I have not been briefed on that. We would operate on cash and carry basis to recover debts owed us. We get money from IGR to survive”, he added.

The situation of NAMA is so precarious that taking such steps to recover debts owed it is one of the options open to the airspace agency in order to remain financially stable.

It generates its own resources and funds most of its projects from internally generated revenue and only gets assistance from the Federal Government when the projects are beyond its capacity.

But for international airlines that pay for navigational assistance and over fliers, NAMA would have been in more serious financial mess as most domestic airlines are all guilty of not paying their bills.

The agency is facing great difficulty in funding the maintenance of its critical equipment as well as staff remunerations and pensions to its retired personnel.

The debts, which were traced as far back as to 2001, included the ones Nigerian airlines paid from 2001 to 2013 which attracted litigation that was later won at the Supreme Court by the agency.

Apart from the old debts of airlines, the carriers have incurred additional debts that may have risen by over 30 per cent since 2013.

Wole Shadare