Abuja – The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority has commended the capacity and performance of the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) equipment in guaranteeing safety of air navigation in the country.
This is contained in a statement by Mrs Olajumoke Adetona, Acting General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), on Sunday in Abuja.
The statement said the visiting top-level technical team of the Ghana CAA led by its Director-General, Mr Abdullahi Alhassan, gave the commendation during a facility tour of NAMA’s installations in Lagos.
It said that some of the installations visited included the TRACON site and Control Tower at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
The statement quoted Alhassan as saying, “we are highly impressed with what we have seen here, both in terms of technical infrastructure and human capacity to effectively man these facilities and guarantee safety of air travel in the country”.
“The GCAA DG told officials of NAMA that their mission to Nigeria was to seek the nation’s support in the co-management of the Accra airspace which includes Togo and Benin.
“It is a matter that the three bodies (ASECNA, GCAA and NAMA) should discuss on a round table because of its regional safety and security implications and the position of Ghana is that we co-manage the airspace rather than sectorise it” it quoted GCAA’s DG.
According to the statement, the Managing Director of NAMA, Mr Ibrahim Abdulsalam, maintained that as neighbours, Nigeria is in the middle of the whole issue which makes it imperative for a quick resolution to be sought.
It said that Abdulsalam assured that Nigeria was disposed to a peaceful and amicable resolution of the issues.
“He stressed that NAMA was committed to co-operating with both Ghana and ASECNA in its determination to ensure safety of the African sky.
“Abdulsalam also promised to open a line of communication with ASECNA on the possibility of the three organisations meeting at the WACAF office in Dakar and amicably resolving the issues,” it said.
The statement added that NAMA had successfully rounded off the calibration of navigational aids across the country.
It said the operation which lasted for ten days was handled by a technical team from ASECNA in collaboration with NAMA engineers.
According to the statement, leader of the ASECNA calibration team, Mr Nganan Jorim, expressed delight over what he referred to as “the most successful calibration exercise in recent time’’.
“He recalled that his team had no challenges whatsoever in the entire operation because of the preparedness of the NAMA team prior to their arrival from Senegal.
On the status of the navigational aids calibrated, Jorim remarked that “the report of the calibration indicated that the navigational aids are in a very perfect condition for safe flight operations”.