CHUKS OKOH
The National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, (NAAPE), NCAA Branch has issued a warning to the National Assembly, over any attempt to cut the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s 5% share of Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) saying it will end endanger the safety of air travelers in the country q
In a statement issued in Abuja, NAAPE said the proposed bill to reduce NCAA’s allocation from 56% to 40%, while increasing NAMA’s share from 22% to 40%, represents a dangerous departure from the founding philosophy of Nigeria’s aviation safety system.
According to NAAPE, the 5% Ticket Sales Charge was never designed as a general revenue pot to be shared equally. Citing the 1999 Mamman Committee Report that birthed NCAA and NAMA, the group explained that NCAA was deliberately set up as a non-commercial safety regulator that would depend on the charge to fund inspections, certifications and oversight, while NAMA was conceived as a commercial service provider expected to sustain itself through air navigation fees.
“That is why the 1999 Act gave NCAA 70% and NAMA 30%,” the Association stated. “The reductions in 2006 and 2022 have already weakened the regulator. To cut it further to 40% now is to gamble with lives.”
NAAPE recalled Nigeria’s painful aviation history to make its case.
The group pointed to the Bellview Flight 210 crash in 2005 which killed 117 people, the ADC Flight 53 crash months later that claimed 96 lives, and the Dana Air Flight 992 disaster in Lagos. It said those tragedies forced Nigeria to invest in stronger oversight, training, and enforcement — the same system that recently earned the country a 91.4% score in ICAO’s global safety audit.
“Those reforms did not happen by accident,” the statement read. “They happened because Nigeria decided that a weak regulator places lives at risk.”
The pilots and engineers painted a grim picture of NCAA’s current finances. They said the Authority is already struggling to pay Duty Tour Allowances to inspectors, has lost over 60 technical personnel to better-paying jobs abroad in the last five years, and cannot even implement a revised Conditions of Service approved since January 2026 because of lack of funds.
Worse, NAAPE said, about 30% of NCAA’s internally generated revenue is deducted at source, leaving inspectors to sometimes fund official oversight trips from their own pockets, with reimbursements outstanding for months.
“No effective safety system can depend on the personal sacrifice of inspectors,” NAAPE warned. “When an inspection is delayed because funds are not available, a defect may go undetected. Safety does not collapse overnight. It erodes gradually.”
The Association also raised international concerns. It noted that Nigeria’s Category 1 FAA status and global investor confidence rest on the strength of NCAA. It cited ICAO requirements that a regulator must have adequate financial resources, and warned that reducing NCAA’s funding could trigger negative observations in future audits and affect Nigerian airlines flying to the US.
Rather than cutting NCAA’s share, NAAPE said the National Assembly should focus on recovering the huge backlog of unremitted Ticket Sales Charges from airlines. It argued that this would provide relief to all agencies without weakening the regulator. In fact, the group said a case could be made to increase NCAA’s share to 65% given the rising cost of safety oversight, inflation, and new aviation technologies.
“Safety oversight is expensive because safety failure is far more expensive,” NAAPE said. “The NCAA certifies aircraft, audits airlines, licenses pilots, and oversees airports. That is the invisible barrier between safe operations and disaster.”
The Association concluded that the debate is not about revenue sharing, but about safety.
“The real question is whether Nigeria is prepared to weaken the institution principally responsible for protecting the safety of every person who flies within its airspace. Our answer is unequivocal. The NCAA should not lose even one naira. It should be strengthened.”
The statement was signed by Comrade Diepreye Stephen Saburugha, Chairman, and Comrade (Engr.) Celestine Nkemakolam Chukwu, Secretary of NAAPE, NCAA Branch.
NAAPE urged lawmakers to reject the bill and instead prioritize funding, enforcement, and the retention of technical manpower to protect Nigeria’s hard-earned aviation safety record.
