The International Civil Aviation Organization concluded a twelve-day Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, Continuous Monitoring Approach review of Nigeria's aviation sector on 11 September 2023, giving the country an initial Effective Implementation score of 70.12 percent, below the 75 percent benchmark ICAO uses as an informal marker of robust safety oversight. The score nonetheless represented an improvement on the 67.1 percent Nigeria recorded in its previous full audit in 2016.
The audit, which ran from 30 August to 11 September, assessed whether Nigeria's aviation agencies had effectively and consistently implemented the critical elements of a functioning safety oversight system, spanning legislation, organisational capacity, personnel licensing, flight operations, airworthiness, accident investigation, and air navigation services. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority represented the country's regulatory framework through the audit process, alongside input from the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
Strong and Weak Points in the Breakdown
Nigeria's individual category scores varied considerably. The country scored 90 percent in Legislation, down slightly from 95 percent in the previous audit, and 94 percent in Airworthiness, up from 90 percent. The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau's Accident Investigation function scored 89 percent, an improvement of five points. But the audit exposed sharper weaknesses in infrastructure-linked categories: Aerodrome and Ground Aids, overseen by FAAN, scored just 56 percent, while Air Navigation Services, under NAMA, scored only 44 percent, reflecting gaps that included the absence of Instrument Landing Systems at a number of airports and the downgrading of runway lighting categories at several facilities.
Aviation analysts who reviewed the results pointed to a persistent shortage of technical personnel, including air traffic controllers and accident investigators, across NAMA, the NCAA, and the NSIB as a contributing factor to the shortfall, alongside physical infrastructure issues such as runway lighting theft and cable vandalism reported at Lagos's main airport in the period leading up to the audit.
A Roadmap for Improvement
Nigerian officials described the audit outcome as a foundation for a structured corrective action programme rather than a final verdict, noting that the country would need to close the identified gaps, particularly in ground aids and air navigation services, ahead of any future ICAO validation mission. The result placed additional pressure on the incoming leadership at the Ministry of Aviation to prioritise infrastructure investment across NAMA and FAAN alongside the immediate operational crises already facing the sector.
