Minister Lauds NAMA’s e-Flight Clearance System

Mr. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, has commended the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) for its e-Flight Clearance web portal, a web based solution to the strenuous system of manually processing aircraft over flight and landing permit by non-scheduled aircraft operators as obtained in the past.

The e-Flight Clearance web portal, was developed by the agency in conjunction with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

Hon. Amaechi was at the NCAA Annex Complex, MMIA Lagos in company of the Minister of State, Aviation, Hon. Hadi Sirika and other top officials of the ministry for the demonstration of the e-flight clearance module to stakeholders.

He noted during the exercise, that as a Governor of Rivers State in the recent past, he personally encountered challenges trying to process manual flight clearance, the same way other pilots and airline agents did.

The minister explained that, since the e-Flight Clearance can be processed online from anywhere in the world, without necessarily going to NAMA or NCAA offices, most of the delays would be removed from the system.

‘’What this software has done is that you can now manage your time better and make more money because time is money,” Amaechi said.

While charging the media to be magnanimous in commending government whenever laudable milestones such as the e-clearance are attained, the minister stressed that the development has given him and his entourage cause to be happy.

He therefore congratulated the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for a job well done.

In his remarks, Capt. Muhtar Usman, Director General of NCAA, noted that the need to deploy technology in improving services necessitated innovation in the manner flight clearances are conducted.

He noted that the electronic clearance system apart from addressing bureaucratic problems associated with paper work will also “be able to identify all incoming flights and record them in real time using their tail numbers as well as recording the time they depart the Nigerian airspace.”

It will be recalled that the need to transit from the manual process of processing flight clearance to electronic became imperative following the myriad of challenges that dogged the old system. These included difficulty in tracing documents, unnecessary bureaucracy leading to waste of time as well as vulnerability of the system to manipulation to the detriment of national security.

By Patrick Aigbokhan

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