A comprehensive study of airport facilities with a focus on safety standards, technical capacity, funding, equipment maintenance, and gaps has begun in the 15 countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The study will help benchmark aviation infrastructure in line with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.
Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Ibrahim Abdulsalam, who received the team in his office in Lagos, commended ECOWAS for the initiative and expressed confidence that the report would provide ways to build a uniform aviation structure across the region.
He urged the team to “make a distinction between airport and airspace infrastructure in the course of the study.”
Nigeria’s radar infrastructure ranks among the best in ECOWAS countries, according to the team leader, Olumuyiwa Shokunbi.
He said Nigeria is “way ahead of several other countries we have visited in terms of navigational and surveillance infrastructure and same applies to the technical capacity of personnel that run these equipment.”