The presidency on Monday held an evaluation meeting with the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, and heads of agencies under the ministry to review the first three quarters of the 2024 performance assessment report on the implementation of Presidential Priorities and Ministerial Deliverables.
In a statement posted by the Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit, the team led by the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination, Hadiza Usman, met the top echelons of the ministry.
During the visit, the team asked the ministry to work with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority to ensure the reworking of the policy on airline sanctions considering the number of delays and flight cancellations in the country.
In December 2024, the acting Director-General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Chris Najomo, had expressed concern over the increasing rate of flight cancellations, lamenting that not less than 190 flights were cancelled within two months.
The acting DG said this while delivering his speech at the Airlines-NCAA engagement event in Lagos State.
Najomo disclosed that 2,434 flights were delayed while 79 were cancelled out of 5,291 flights operated in September 2024.
He added that out of 5,513 flights operated in October 2024, 2,791 were delayed while 111 flights were cancelled.
Meanwhile, the team also knocked the ministry for submitting incomplete information, hindering independent investigation of activities of the ministry.
The presidential team further scored the ministry low in stakeholders and passengers’ engagement, a deliverable that Ms. Usman charged the ministry to urgently improve.
The statement reads,” The special adviser commended the minister and leadership of the ministry for ensuring progress within the sector. However, she expressed concerns with the ministry and its agencies over their submission of incomplete information, which hinders the independent assessment of progress towards achieving certain deliverables.”
She also highlighted the ministry’s shortcomings in stakeholder and customer engagement, a key deliverable that also requires urgent improvement.
“The special adviser recommended that the ministry and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority revisit the draft policy on sanctions for airlines. She described this as critical, given the increasing number of flight delays and cancellations and the impact on affected passengers.
“She further recommended a revision of the current target of 224 days for resolving customer complaints, describing it as unrealistic and in need of urgent recalibration to align with global best practices.”
While presenting the ministry’s performance scorecard for the first three quarters of 2024, Keyamo expressed his appreciation to the special adviser for her diligent work and guidance.
He, however, assured that the ministry would address the highlighted challenges and intensify efforts to improve performance and service delivery in the aviation sector.
Present at the engagement were the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Ibrahim Kana; Managing Director of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Bunmi Kuku; Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority; Managing Director of Nigeria Airspace Management Authority, Farouk Umar, among others.
