The Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) and the Banjul Accord Group Accident Investigation Agency (BAGAIA) have partnered to improve the capacity of safety investigation agencies in the country.
Mr Akin Olateru, Director-General, NSIB, said this at the closing of a peer review programme, organised by the Bureau for some organisations in the aviation sector, in Abuja.
He said that the aim of the programme is to boost the capability of agencies in the Investigation of civil aviation accidents, as well as serious incidences in the sector.
He said that Nigeria was selected for the pilot phase of the programme which was sponsored by the EU, under its EASA/BAGAIA programme.
“What has been happening since Monday is basically in two parts, one is to do what we call peer review and peer review is to benchmark systems, processes and procedures to help us see how we do things here and how we can improve on the way we do things.
“This part of the programme is to see how we can improve and benchmark our systems, processes and procedures with the EU standards.
“The second part is to train our investigators on how to carry out peer review so that we can help other nations.
“The programme is basically for collaboration as you know that aviation is all about collaboration , so it will not only be beneficial to Nigeria alone, but to the entire African region.
“This is the only way we can ensure consistency in maintaining that safety record,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Charles Erhuah, Commissioner, BAGAIA, said the programme would enable member states to meet their safety regulations and among other requirements.
“One important achievement of BAGAIA in the last few years has been zero accident and hull losses in our individual airspaces.
“This has improved our collective safety records and has removed our airlines from various blacklists worldwide.
“This means our individual and collective safety recommendations are being needed and they are helping to create a safer airspace.
“We will also look at how we can infuse technology to make our primary responsibility seamless and also ensure we have well-trained investigators into the field to create capacity that will replace our fast-aging breed of professionals.
“As we commence this review, may our committment towards a safer sky for our states, the BAG region and indeed the globe, not waiver, as whatever we do here will resound in the echoes of time and have a safety impact on generations to come,” he said.