By Louis Ibah
Nigeria yesterday attained another International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) safety rating, which now places it among the world leaders in the implementation of safety processes in its aviation sector operations.
A statement by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said the country has climbed to Level 3 State Safety Programme (SSP) Implementation Process.
This categorisation is dependent on the ICAO, which tracks the SSP implementation process of member-states via its integrated Safety Trend Analysis and Reporting System (iSTARS). An SSP is an integrated set of regulations and activities aimed at improving aviation safety, which will be monitored through Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA).
Nigeria has, therefore, joined countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom, among others in this echelon.
Only two member states – Australia and Sri Lanka – have achieved full implementation of the SSP, according to ICAO records.
“With this achievement, the NCAA will continue to ensure that air transportation in Nigeria is seamless, safe and secure at all times,” said the NCAA in the statement.
“Airline operators should take advantage of the robust regulation and adhere to all safety regulations as contained in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations as Nigeria is striving to achieve Level 4, which is 100 per cent by the end 0f 2017,” the NCAA added.
The SSP process is inaugurated in member countries in compliance with the ICAO requirements as contained in Annex 19 on Safety Management.
Consequently, Nigeria’s advanced level has put its SSP implementation process among states that have defined an action plan for all non-implemented gap questions.
In other words, Nigeria has completed its Gap Analysis and implemented 43.6 per cent of the required SSP tasks. In addition, the country has developed a detailed action plan for the accomplishment of the outstanding tasks with an established and approved timeline.
In pursuant to the above, Nigeria has commenced the implementation of the SSP processes and has achieved several milestones. These include the completion of the SSP Gap Analysis and the establishment of the implementation plan approved by the NCAA.