The summit held in New York, and was organised by Africa 2.0. The minister spoke to Abuja Metro on their plans for the the nation’s aviation and manufacturing sectors, more particularly, the seeming slow pace of work in remodelling the airports since he took over the ministry among other issues. His counterpart, Aganga also spoke and the sluggish growth of Nigerian manufacturing economy and the shrinking presence of made-in-Nigeria goods.
What has been your experience since you took over the aviation ministry?
I see a sector that is on growth mood. There are a lot projects, and a lot of ideas have been articulated and a lot of efforts are put in place to promote channels of the aviation sector. What is important now and what I am trying to do is prioritizing and differentiating our outcome in a dimensional form. A Lot of infrastructural work is going on and we are trying to say which of them is related to safety, which one is related to security, which is related to passenger movement and convenience. With that dimension in place I want to prioritise to focus on safety of the air space and safety of the airlines. The second is to secure our airports because there are critical infrastructures. We need to make sure our airports are safe. So that is our second priority on the scale of preference. The third of course is passenger convenience and experience. So our goal will be to enhance passengers experience and make sure that passengers who use our airports feel the same way they do when they use airports in other parts of the world where aviation is more advanced than it is in Nigeria.
Now, because the scale of preference is for safety, security down to passengers experience and because there are limited funds in the country, in prioritizing, there will be a tendency for people not to see some of the work we do because it has something to do with safety, has to do with compliance level you are bringing the aeronautical engineers, you are bringing the incidents management systems in place, making sure the pilots are well certified, making sure that all the strains that contribute to a safe aviation sector are in place.
The second, maybe a little visible because it is seen within the airports is parameter fencing, security equipment, scanning equipment and all that. And then the third will be very highly visible, completing the projects that are ongoing and ensuring that the benefits of those projects are real to the traveling public.
Ultimately the job for me as a minister is that in doing all of these things, there is one strain – that I need to connect them all and that is the capacity of the staff at the Ministry of Aviation to deliver on these. Don’t forget that Nigeria has always had great infrastructure in the past and there have come to naught. Nigeria has always invested in things, and just after a while we lose our bearing. So, now we want to put in place a performance management system, that will ensure that everyone from the airport manager to the security man, to other stakeholders – Immigration, Customs, NDLEA, understand our goal and that goal is that we want to match Nigeria’s aspirations. So Nigeria wants to grow as a nation, and it build an aviation sector that matches that goal.
If for instance it takes you one minute to clear a passenger through the security and it takes you 10 minutes to clear him through immigration, another 10 minutes to board the plane; and with the cumulative time for all these stages of the activities, we should compare it with what is the global benchmark. What does it take to clear a passenger in some other advanced airports? With such comparative question in mind, then try to improve on our own to reflect that standard. So in all of these, developing the staff, training them and improving their capacity are critical to making sure that these reforms are sustained. Without the staff being brought up to speed, without efficiency and productivity increase all these projects will come to naught sooner than later.
What do you have to tell those that think things have slowed down in the sector especially in the remodelling of the airports since you came in as well as complaints on qualities of work done?
Things slowing down is a question of funding, if the budget releases are going as planned, the projects will go on as planned. In terms of quality of work, this has to do with the contractual capacity of the contractors. So we are going to look into that and see those who have delivered these projects whether they have the right capacities. It is a matter that we will resolve as we proceed.
Is floating a national carrier part of your plans for the sector?
Definitely we are thinking of a national carrier. The idea of a national carrier is actually very good because transport generally is an enabler. Transport is a derived demand, nobody uses transport for the sake of it but you use it because you want to move from point A to B, or move goods from point A to B. You don’t just board a plane for the fun of it. So because it is a derived demand, one of our key goals is to make sure that we have a carrier that will take care of our bilateral agreements and that it will go to those places that ordinarily a private sector will not want to go and do those things that a private sector will not want to do. We don’t plan to do this in an unprofitable manner but to know that creating access enables the whole economy. So our goal is that the aviation sector will create access that will enable growth in all spheres. Nigeria’s growth potentials will have to be merged with an aviation sector that reflects those national aspirations.
In your intervention during the business summit, you did mention that Nigeria’s aviation is a great potential for investors can you explain that?
There are great opportunities in the airports. So many airports in the world are run by private companies. There are many operations of the airports that lend to the private sector management. It is something that every country looks into to see how to partner with the private sector to maximise the opportunities in the sector. So I think going forward is something Nigeria will look into. We will consider that aspect of growing efficiency at the airports including managing our air size experience and airport experience. It is already in the plan of government and will be implemented over time.
Are you aware of a tradition by some airlines to deliberately cut passengers that arrive airport on time from their flights, claiming they were late just to make money from rebooking of flights; and how would you address it?
Well for some airlines if you come less than one hour to the flight you will not board because they do advance passenger information. For Emirate for instance, all the checked in passengers information will have to be sent to Dubai and the passengers are cleared by the security before you even board the plane. I am just telling you what the standard rule is. I am not making excuses for Nigerian airlines. Even if you checked in online if your baggage has not come in at the stipulated one hour before the flight departure, it is likely that they won’t take you on that flight. For airlines that overbook and then when they can’t take all of you, they take care of you by putting you in a hotel and in some cases they will ask people who want to step down and will even offer to make refund. Because when they don’t overbook and people don’t show up especially when there is a growing market, sometimes you are flying an empty aircraft meanwhile there are people waiting to travel.
Does the BASA agreement include the standardization of the aircraft following the observation that the flight from Abuja to Dubai for instance will be far below in standards and quality than those from Dubai to New York?
Once an aircraft is certified by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as fit to fly you can’t stop the aircraft from coming to your country. It is an international business so once an aircraft is certified that it can fly by CAA, no one can stop it from flying.
How would your experience in road safety impact on aviation, especially in traffic management and safety rules?
I am immediately going to address that problem of traffic management as soon as I touch down in Lagos. Since I have experience in traffic management, I am meeting with the unit of the FRSC in Lagos, then we will meet with the police and air force commandant and we will resolve it. I mean traffic at the airport is not beyond the one that comes into any other airport in the world so we should be competent to manage it.
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