The Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu, has said except the African countries harmonise their civil aviation regulations to one, the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), even when implemented would not achieve its potential.
Nuhu said this in an interview with aviation journalists at the Aviation Africa Summit held in Abuja, recently, citing that Europe is able to excel because the entire countries operate under one regulatory body; European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
He added that in Europe, they have one political organisation, the European Commission which makes their policies and it is applicable to all but here in Africa everybody does his own policies and goes their own way.
The NCAA boss stressed that unless Africa finds a way to resolve these issues, even if SAATM is implemented, it is not going to achieve its potential.
According to him, though the current Secretary General of African Civil Aviation Commission Constitution (AFCAC), Ms. Adefunke Adeyemi, of Nigeria has done excellently well in promoting SAATM with changes coming up, the challenge of different countries with different regulations on the African continent remains the bane to SAATM.
He said: “Well, there are quite a few challenges about SAATM, since the new Secretary General, Ms. Adefunke Adeyemi, of Nigeria became AFCAC Secretary General, she has done excellently well.
“She is really promoting SAATM and we can see changes coming. Maybe slowly, but it is a start, it is coming. To me, one or two of the main issues we have with SAATM is that we compare ourselves with Europe, but Europe has one regulatory body, EASA.
“In Africa we have 24 different regulatory bodies with 24 different regulations. So, this makes it difficult, until we Africans learn to be one, have a single regulatory body like EASA.
“If you are coming from a country with a requirement and you come to Nigeria, I start giving you another requirement that is a very difficult thing to do.
“And in Europe, they have one political organisation, the European Commission. They make their policies and it is applicable to all. But, here everybody does his own policies and goes their own way. Honestly, unless we find a way to resolve these issues, even if SAATM is implemented, it is not going to achieve its potential.”
Nuhu highlighted that if the regulations of the various African countries are harmonised, then they can carry out training and many other things together, also stressing that flying from one country to another on the continent would be like a local flight.
He raised hope in this regard, saying that they have started informally talking to some director generals of some four, five countries to see how the regulations between these countries can be harmonised.
“As I said during my speech, we have started informally talking to some director generals of some four, five countries to see how we can look at our regulations to have some kind of harmonisation between these countries.
“Do you know what it does if you have harmonisation? We will do training together, there are many things we can do together.
“If an airline is coming from Country A to Country B and we have harmonisation, it is like a local flight. So, to me that is the way to go. We want to start, and I hope we are able to hit the ground on that and when other countries see that it is succeeding, everybody wants success, and everybody will want to join the band,” the NCAA boss explained.