Mr Dele Sesegbon, the Director of General Aviation, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), says the agency is determined to regulate the use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in Nigerian airspace.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Abuja that NCAA had a proposed regulation already to drive both commercial and private RPAS operation commonly known as drones and unmanned aircraft.
The director said the authority was also currently working with Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to integrate unmanned aircraft in the country into the airspace.
According to him, it is such a big challenge and NCAA wants to make sure that it succeeds.
“The regulation is ready. The integration of the unmanned aircraft into the airspace system has to be done seamlessly and we have to do it.
“Basically, what we have done so far is to get the country’s Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) involved, which is NAMA.
“NAMA will get involved and then bring those unmanned aircraft into the airspace system.’’
Sesegbon said the authority had worked hard over the years to make manned operation in Nigeria’s airspace as safe as possible, adding that the manned and unmanned aircraft were two different systems.
He explained that NCAA had decided to integrate RPAS into its system to be able to take advantage of evolving technology and tap into the economic opportunities that accompanied it.
He said “it is what the whole world is doing; it is an evolving technology that everybody is taking advantage of and we want to be part of that as well.
“We have a company that actually makes drones in Abuja and they are discussing with us and we are looking at how to integrate them into our system.
“This is because, it is one of the important things we have to look at as far as the maintenance of drones is concerned.’’
