Chinedu Eze
Aviation industry stakeholders are worried about the weak financial capabilities of aviation agencies, allegedly caused by the internal revenue deductions from their earnings to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), by the federal government.
According to the stakeholders, such heavy deductions have brought severe financial distress on the operations of the agencies, and could force them into bankruptcy.
Industry sources informed THISDAY that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) have become insolvent adding that this has affected their ability to carry out some of their financial obligations, including execution of critical projects and salaries and allowances to their workers.
Workers of the agencies have alleged that the huge monies paid to the federal government by the agencies as remittances, run into billions of naira revealing that this has impaired their operations.
In 2024, FAAN remitted the sum of N281,881,317.34 into the federal government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund account and the payment was part of the 50 per cent revenue remittance policy mandated by the federal government for revenue-generating agencies.
Also in 2025, FAAN remitted N150.4 billion to the CRF during that fiscal year.
Also, in 2024, NCAA was expected to generate and remit of N372.23 billion to the federal government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund Account but was able to remit N218 billion that year.
There is no published data on the amount NAMA has been remitting to the CRF account but the agency said that the remittances have left it cash strapped such that it cannot carry out its obligatory responsibilities.
THISDAY investigation revealed that NCAA is currently in prolonged period of economic stagnation because after the deductions from source by the federal government, airlines owe the agency monies accruing from the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge and Cargo Sales Charge (TSC/CSC), which is collected by airlines in trust and then remitted to the NCAA to be shared with other aviation agencies.
A NAMA insider told THISDAY that the agencies were practically in the red because the federal government “seemed insensitive about our operations and they are deducting our revenue at source.”
“We basically have installations at strategic areas and at the airports in order to maintain communication in the airspace and we power these installations with diesel. You know how much diesel costs now. When you really look at it, government should not be collecting money from us because they have many other sources of revenue and these monies they are collecting is jeopardising our operations.
“Everyone knows that there is epileptic power supply across the nation so we cannot leave our equipment at the mercy of public power supply. If we do that there will not be communication in the airspace and aircraft will start dropping from the sky. Besides, we are not revenue generating agency. It is the same with NCAA. What we do is cost recovery, but government believes we are making money. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommended that revenues generated from the aviation industry should be ploughed back to the sector to further develop it. And there is so much to do with money but the money is not there,” the source said.
The NAMA source also pointed out that the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) needs spares and also needs regular upgrade and the spares are not produced locally so they need to be imported but the agency is cash strapped.
“For NAMA to run efficiently, we need a lot of money. We have to continue to upgrade our system. We have ground based and satellite based navigation systems which always need to be upgraded and updated. Our Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) needs to be constantly upgraded. The manufacturers behave like mobile phone manufacturers; they are always upgrading the equipment so you need to keep up with them or you will be behind. So, if NAMA has more money they will be able to upgrade their system like what South Africa is doing with their Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS),” he said.
The Secretary-General of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), Saidu Abdulrasaq, told THISDAY that the unions were mounting campaign for the federal government to stop the deductions from the agencies because whatever the agencies are earning should be ploughed back to develop the industry, insisting that FAAN has a lot in its hands managing the airports, including providing fire and security personnel to the state owned and other airports outside its own management.
Abdulrasaq said the agencies needed government funding instead of deductions, adding that NCAA should build a framework to directly collect its Ticket Sales Charges from passengers.
However, the former Director General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, told THISDAY in a telephone interview that government ought to know that NCAA is not revenue generating agency and therefore should not be remitting money to government.
“NCAA does not charge for profit in the services it provides and cost recovery is not enough to run the agency. Cost recovery earning is not enough for the agency to pay its over 1,500 staff and when you compare what NCAA charges to what Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) charges, it is like day and night. GCAA charges very highly and they also charge in dollars,” he said.
Captain Nuhu said that NCAA would not be able to collect ticket sales charge directly from passengers because NCAA does not know the cost of ticket at any point in time and he number of tickets sold.
“So, the best thing is for NCAA and the airlines to sit down and review the modalities. You owe us this money, we cannot collect them all at once, but this is what you pay us every month but subsequent ones will be pay as you go. We do not want to ground the airlines,” he said.
According to Nuhu, it is obligatory on the airlines and other organisations at the airports to pay for the services rendered to them by the agencies, noting that NCAA conducts training, provides critical services, while FAAN spends whopping sum of money managing the airport and providing electricity that powers the airports. Also, NAMA, NIMET provide essential services that airlines cannot do without.
“So, airlines, handling companies and others should pay for the services rendered to them by the agencies. We know that the airlines are facing their own challenges. Currently it is the high cost of aviation fuel and high exchange rate, but none of these is caused by the aviation agencies. On deductions of agencies revenue by government, ICAO recommended that money earned from aviation should be used to develop the industry but the federal government has its own aviation policy. So, such deduction is government policy in Nigeria but it is against ICAO recommended practices,” he said.
Nuhu also recommended that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Act should be reviewed to take cognisance of new developments in the aviation industry.
However, industry analyst and member of Aviation Round Table (ART), Captain John Ojukutu, told THISDAY that there should be critical investigation to know the actual revenue the aviation agencies collect.
He added that the agencies do not complain that foreign airlines owe them, “and they do not give comprehensive account of their earnings from the foreign carriers, adding that the earning from these agencies can run into a trillion Naira.”
But documented revenue figures say otherwise and the agencies are in dire need of money to effectively carry out their services which are critical for safe flight operations.