The National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), NCAA Branch, has warned that the proposed funding cut for the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) could weaken aviation safety oversight, threaten Nigeria’s international aviation standing and ultimately put millions of passengers at risk.
In a position paper jointly signed by its Chairman, Diepreye Stephen Saburugha, and Secretary, Celestine Nkemakolam Chukwu, the association described the proposed funding cut as a dangerous policy that would undermine the country’s primary aviation safety regulator.
The association was reacting to a bill before the National Assembly seeking to reduce the NCAA’s share of the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge from 56 per cent to 40 per cent, while increasing the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency’s (NAMA) allocation from 22 per cent to 40 per cent.
According to NAAPE, the proposed funding cut is “not merely a debate about revenue allocation” but “a debate about safety.”
“The issue is no longer whether the NCAA can somehow survive with less funding. The real question is whether Nigeria is prepared to weaken the institution principally responsible for protecting the safety of every person who flies within its airspace,” the statement said.
The association recalled that Nigeria’s aviation safety framework was strengthened after the Bellview Airlines, ADC Airlines and Dana Air crashes exposed major weaknesses in safety oversight.
It argued that reversing those hard-earned reforms through another funding cut would place decades of progress at risk.
“A nation that weakens its safety regulator weakens the safety of its skies. Nigeria must not make that mistake,” the statement added.
NAAPE said the proposal also ignored the historical philosophy behind the Ticket Sales Charge. It explained that when the NCAA and NAMA were created in 1999, the NCAA received 70 per cent of the charge because it was established as an independent safety regulator requiring guaranteed funding to perform oversight duties.
However, the association noted that the NCAA’s allocation gradually fell to 58 per cent under the Civil Aviation Act 2006 before dropping again to 56 per cent under the Civil Aviation Act 2022 to accommodate other aviation agencies.
According to the association, the latest proposal would further reduce the regulator’s financial autonomy despite growing oversight responsibilities.
“To now propose a further drastic reduction of NCAA’s share from 56 per cent to 40 per cent is not simply another adjustment to a revenue-sharing formula. It represents a fundamental departure from the very philosophy upon which Nigeria’s aviation safety oversight system was established,” the statement said.
NAAPE stressed that the NCAA remains responsible for certifying airlines, inspecting aircraft, approving maintenance organisations, overseeing flight operations, licensing aviation professionals and enforcing compliance with aviation regulations.
Funding Cut Could Deepen NCAA Financial Crisis
NAAPE said the proposed funding cut comes at a time when the Authority is already struggling to finance inspections, surveillance programmes and other critical safety oversight activities.
“The Authority is increasingly finding it difficult to adequately fund critical safety oversight activities. Important inspections and surveillance programmes have become constrained by limited resources,” the statement said.
According to the association, inspectors are owed substantial Duty Tour Allowances, while some official entitlements remain unpaid because available funds are insufficient to meet both operational and personnel obligations.
The group further disclosed that the NCAA has lost more than 60 inspectors and other specialised technical personnel in the past five years through attrition, largely because of poor remuneration and more attractive opportunities with foreign aviation authorities, airlines and maintenance organisations.
It said the regulator had invested heavily in training many of the professionals, only to lose them to organisations offering significantly better conditions of service.
“This continuing brain drain represents a serious erosion of institutional knowledge and technical capacity for a regulator whose effectiveness depends almost entirely on the competence and experience of its technical workforce,” the statement added.
NAAPE warned that weakening the regulator through another funding cut would make it even more difficult to retain experienced inspectors, whose work includes certifying airlines, approving maintenance organisations, overseeing aerodromes and ensuring operators comply with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations.
The association argued that aviation safety oversight is one of the most resource-intensive government responsibilities because inspectors require continuous training to keep pace with evolving aircraft technologies and international safety standards. That cannot happen with a planned funding cut.
It noted that Nigeria recently achieved a 91.4 per cent Effective Implementation score during the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, describing the achievement as evidence of the country’s credible regulatory system.
According to NAAPE, reducing the NCAA’s financial capacity through the proposed funding cut could gradually undermine that progress and weaken international confidence in Nigeria’s aviation oversight system.
The association also argued that the real challenge confronting the aviation sector was not the existing revenue-sharing formula but the failure of some airlines to remit outstanding Ticket Sales Charges collected from passengers.
It said recovering those debts would improve the finances of all beneficiary agencies, including the NCAA, NAMA, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, without weakening the country’s primary safety regulator.
Rather than implementing the proposed funding cut, NAAPE urged the Federal Government to strengthen the NCAA’s financial autonomy by increasing its statutory allocation to about 65 per cent, arguing that the regulator’s responsibilities and the cost of safety oversight have continued to grow.
“The conversation should not be about reducing NCAA’s statutory allocation. If anything, there is now a compelling case for reviewing its share upwards to approximately 65 per cent in order to preserve Nigeria’s hard-earned aviation safety record,” the statement said.
The association maintained that strengthening the NCAA, instead of reducing its funding, would better protect passengers and sustain Nigeria’s global aviation reputation.
“The solution to the financial challenges facing Nigeria’s aviation industry is not to cripple the regulator through a funding cut. It is to strengthen the regulator, recover outstanding statutory revenues, modernise the financing of aviation service providers and preserve the financial autonomy that ICAO regards as indispensable for effective safety oversight.
“A nation that weakens its safety regulator weakens the safety of its skies. Nigeria must not make that mistake,” the statement concluded.
