Aviation expert urges lawmakers to force FAAN to pay 5% of commercial revenue into safety fund
A former secretary of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative has called on the House of Representatives to compel the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to remit five per cent of its commercial earnings into the pool that funds the country’s aviation safety agencies.
John Ojikutu made the case in a presentation to the House Committee on Aviation, arguing that the current formula for sharing the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge, Cargo Sales Charge, and Chartered Flights Charge is no longer rational and fails to reflect the differing responsibilities and operational demands of the agencies involved.
The existing arrangement, he said, distributes funds among the NCAA, NAMA, NCAT, NSIB, and NiMet without a clear logic. Ojikutu insisted that the formula should instead take into account the number of personnel deployed by each agency, the volume of equipment it operates, its geographic spread, hours of operation, and, most critically, the safety responsibilities assigned to it.
He noted that the five per cent charges were created to sustain mandatory aviation safety services, but questioned whether the current distribution still matches the realities on the ground. Agencies bearing heavy operational and safety burdens, he argued, should not be left struggling for funds while critical infrastructure, equipment, and personnel require continuous investment.
At the centre of his proposal is FAAN, which he said should no longer be treated simply as an airport infrastructure manager when contributions to aviation safety funding are being considered. Ojikutu pointed out that FAAN operates a broad range of commercial and non‑aeronautical services that generate substantial revenue: passenger terminal services, aircraft landing and parking fees, cargo operations, car parks, toll gates, fuel sales, car‑hire services, land and office rentals, shopping malls, restaurants, airline check‑in counters, aerobridges, VIP lounges, and other commercial activities within airport facilities.
Since these services are part of the aviation ecosystem, he argued, FAAN should contribute to the funding of the safety system that supports the airports and the wider industry. “The non‑aeronautical services that are mostly commercial operators’ services, which mainly are the airlines, cargo operators, etc., must necessarily include FAAN,” he said. “FAAN, being a commercial airport services operator, should contribute five per cent of its airport sales service charges into the general pool for aviation safety services.”
Ojikutu also proposed a significant redistribution of the existing five per cent fund, recommending that NAMA’s allocation rise from 22 per cent to 40 per cent. NAMA, he noted, provides air traffic control and navigation services to all aircraft operating in Nigerian airspace and maintains a workforce of over 800 air traffic controllers, more than 500 engineers and technologists, and over 1,000 administrative and support staff. Inadequate funding, he warned, could put critical aviation safety infrastructure at risk, particularly where maintenance, replacement, and calibration of equipment are delayed.
For the NCAA, Ojikutu recommended that its share be capped at 40 per cent, down from its current 56 per cent allocation. He argued that the regulator already has more than 15 other revenue sources apart from the five per cent aviation charges, making a reduction justifiable.
The proposed review, he concluded, should ensure that scarce aviation safety funds are directed according to need and operational exposure, not preserved by an outdated formula. The issue, for Ojikutu, is not simply how revenue is divided, it is whether the agencies responsible for keeping passengers, aircraft, and Nigeria’s airspace safe have the resources to do the job effectively.