The Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah has mandated agencies under the ministry to automate all revenue collection process.
Oduah said the move was necessary to curb the huge losses the ministry has incurred as a result of the leakages inherent in the manual procedure.
In a statement issued by the Special Assistant to the Minister on Media, Mr. Joe Obi, she revealed that First Bank of Nigeria Plc was working with experts and professional bodies like IATA, SITA, and a Software Provider, Avitech, amongst others, to lead the collection process.
It said: “Avitech is to provide the automation platform and has a tripartite agreement with the NCAA, the airline operators and their individual banks. The Software Provider has been working with the NCAA since December, 2010.”
The agencies mostly affected in the exercise are the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Meanwhile, Heads of the agencies have expressed satisfaction with the planned automation of the revenue collection process, saying it would greatly enhance their revenue profile. Director General of the NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren was particularly ecstatic about the potential which the automation process holds for the revenue profile of the agencies.
He said: ‘’The former manual process of revenue collection was fraught with a lot of challenges. Apart from the leakages, the agencies were being owed heavily by the airlines and other bodies we were providing service so we are very pleased with the new development because every agency will now have its share of revenue deducted and remitted to it at source.