Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
NIGERIA Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has shut down Glo telecommunications company mast in Abuja over the non-payment of outstanding debt of 4.7 billion. The action was taken to enforce the Aviation Height Clearance (AHC) regulation and to ensure the safety of aviation in Nigeria.
According to the NCAA, all masts are mapped out with a certain height and put in the chart and the process of doing that requires money and those who erected the masts are supposed to pay for it.
The regulatory authority also said that all the communication service providers except Glo have been complying with this payment stating that Globacom have paid only N500 Million out of the N5.2 billion owed, putting the outstanding debt now at N4.7 billion Naira.
The Director-General, Captain Musa Nuhu in company of Minister of Aviation Sen. Hadi Sirika, who said he was there to provide the agency moral support said, “The action we have taken is for the safety of aviation in Nigeria, it’s our responsibility that any mast of a certain height, we are supposed to regulate it and to ensure its properly cover and it is no threat to any low flying aircraft like helicopters, drone and not necessary passengers’ flights.” READ ALSO: N5.9bn AHC debt: NCAA threaten Glo, other telcos of nationwide mast dismantling
Capt. Nuhu said, “when I resumed office, I have seen over 10-15 correspondences in the past written to Glo, we reached out to them we start speaking we give them a bill they raised a point and we review the bill to be fair to them, although it comes down a bit, we asking them for a payment plan but they walked way, adding that it is government money and we don’t have authority to waive a dim”.
He added that “None of the communication service providers has that amount overdue for payment. I think this start in 2007, is not something that starts today. This has been going on for almost 15years, we don’t like shutting down things like that but we have to take this drastic action because of the financial situation and pressure from different sectors of governments like the Federal Ministry of Aviation, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Auditor General, Accountant General and different committees in the National Assembly”.
“We keep carrying this debt in our account year in and year out, we are under tremendous pressure, we need to sort this out and clean those things so that we can get them off our records. We have taken this action to get their attention so that they can come and make some payment. They made a little payment they can make an additional payment and give us a concrete payment plan and how the rest of the money can be paid. He explained.
