A team of ICAO auditors had arrived in Abuja in March for the 2024 Universal Security Audit Programme through a Continuous Monitoring Approach for Lagos and Abuja airports.
Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania have been rated above Nigeria in the last International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) security audit, which lasted two weeks and ended on March 22, 2024.
A team of ICAO auditors had arrived in Abuja in March for the 2024 Universal Security Audit Programme through a Continuous Monitoring Approach for Lagos and Abuja airports.
This had been disclosed in a statement signed by Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Michael Achimugu.
The USAP CMA audit ran for two weeks and ended on March 22 2024, covering critical areas like inflight security, passenger and baggage security, acts of unlawful interference, facilitation, legislation, training, quality control function, operations, and cargo, mail and catering.
However, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania scored well above 80 per cent while Nigeria scored 71.04% in the last ICAO security audit.
Aviation metric reports that lack of adequate personnel especially in critical areas of Aviation Security (AVSEC), poor passenger facilitation, poor oversight on the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), lack of provision of guidance tools, absence of critical information, quality control obligations and resolution of security concerns in terms of deficiencies communicated, development of corrective actions and enforcement cost Nigeria the ICAO Universal Security Audit Programme (USAP) Continuous Monitoring Assessment (CMA) with 71% score.
According to the report, Nigeria dropped a whopping 25% points from the 96% score it had in 2015, signposting serious gaps in many areas of the industry. Adding that the appointment of people into critical positions without good knowledge of the roles they play is also a contributory factor as many of the agencies are littered with people who are not professionals and not well trained in areas they manage causing the decline in aviation security rating.
Areas such as Inflight Security (IFS), Passenger and Baggage Security (PAX), Acts of Unlawful Interference (AUI), Facilitation (FAL), Legislation (LEG), Training (TRG), Quality Control Function (QCF), Operations (OPS) and Cargo, Mail and Catering (CGO), were covered by the USAP CMA.
The last audit before the one in March this year was in 2015. Nigeria scored 96%, regarded as the highest in Africa, culminating in Nigeria receiving an award in 2019 at the ICAO Assembly.
One critical area that scored Nigeria low is the aviation regulatory body’s oversight of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), airlines and other stakeholders in the provision of guidance, tools critical information and others that were well below 50%.
Other areas that the sector did not cover itself in glory were the area of qualification and training of Aviation Security (AVSEC), absence of critical information, poor quality control activities and resolution of security concerns.
The spokesman for the NCAA, Mr. Michael Achimugu had recently justified the reason the country’s aviation sector was rated 71.04 per cent by the ICAO, saying Keyamo, and Acting Director General of NCAA, Captain Chris Najomo corrected some inadequacies because they engaged some aviation security experts to carry out a mock audit ahead of the ICAO audit. Asserting that if those deficiencies had been left, Nigeria would have been rated 30 per cent when results were released.
It is not all doom and gloom for Nigeria as the NCAA was rated highly in the area of legislation just as a few people expressed reservation over the 71% scored in the latest audit, others made a case for the sector and NCAA because the protocols used in 2015 when Nigeria scored 96% has been expanded as the aviation security standards had gone through a lot of changes.
There were quite new standards and some recommended practices. Experts said since the ICAO audit of 2015 was held, there were about 5 amendments which means there was quite a substantial change. Stating that there were many protocol questions. For instance, in 2015, the protocols were over 300 now they are over 400-500 protocols.
An ICAO auditor said, “It is not interesting to explain that Nigeria is now 71% even though we cannot compare the two audits. The reason why is that between the last one and now, the aviation security standard has gone through a lot of changes. There were quite new standards and some recommended practices. When the ICAO audit of 2015 was held there were about five amendments which means there was quite a substantial change. Many new things are involved.
"That’s not enough to say we should be low. When you compare Nigeria to countries like Tanzania, Ghana did 85 per cent. Uganda did 81% percent. We can compare because these countries did a lot better.”