Capt. Fola Akinkuotu
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has commenced a comprehensive competency appraisal of all Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) Officers in all airports across the country.
The exercise which is targeted at examining AIS officers in areas
such as Aeronautical Charts, AIS Publication and Operations started from
the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos and is to proceed to
other airports in the country in the coming weeks.
Managing Director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu said considering the
pivotal role aeronautical information plays in safety of air navigation,
and in the light of ongoing migration to AIS Automation, due
consideration must be given to the integrity of data being disseminated
to airspace users, which warrants the exercise.
Akinkuotu said NAMA places premium on building capacity of staffers
to ensure they possess the competencies required to perform critical
functions that impact on safety while keeping pace with modern trends in
a highly dynamic world of aviation.
General Manager, AIS, Kabir Gusau, noted that the competency check,
which shall be periodic, is in line with Annex 15 of International
Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) of the International Civil
Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Gusau said it is necessary “to ensure that personnel demonstrate the
required competencies to handle specific critical operations,” adding
that constant assessment would enable the agency to detect and correct
shortfalls as they occur.
In a related development, Akinkuotu has charged Air Traffic
Controllers that recently returned from a three-week Search and Rescue
Mission Coordinator Course in Kenya to ensure that the training impacts
positively on the overall safety procedures of the agency.
The MD, while receiving the participants at the agency’s headquarters
in Lagos, charged them to use the benefit of the course to improve on
the agency’s preparedness to handle emergencies.
The Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator Course, which held at the
East African School of Aviation, Nairobi Kenya, is designed to equip
participants with the capacity and skills to initiate search and rescue
and man the Rescue Coordination Centres in a Flight Information Region
(FIR).
