The Effectiveness of Current Management Strategies Utilized by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (Nama)

The study assessed the adequacy of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency’s Current Management Strategies towards Sustainable Radar Service Delivery. The study was based on the observed operational challenges associated with the Agency’s radar infrastructure despite huge capital investments made on modern ATC equipment over the years. It was quantitatively carried out and adopted survey research design. Three hundred survey questionnaires were administered to selected respondents from Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano radar centres of NAMA. The respondents are drawn from radar operators, ATCOs, Aviation Engineers and Management Staff. Two hundred Fifty-Five (255) usable questionnaires were retrieved and used for the study. The information gathered was analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation. The study hypothesis were tested at 0.05 level of significance using one-sample t-test. Findings from the study showed that Current management strategies adopted by NAMA has positively impacted the operations of RADAR services in ensuring acceptable standard of Airspace Management while unstable power supply; aging infrastructure, unavailable dedicated fund for maintenance; shortage of certified technical manpower and weak interconnectivity between radar stations located in different regions were identified as critical operational challenges. The study also revealed radar failure have major consequences on Controllers workload, flight delay, excess fuel burn, operation cost and safety of flight. Evidence from the study also confirmed that Modernization of RADAR equipment through ADS-B technology implementation strategy; centralize database and digital Signal Processing Concepts along with Predictive Maintenance programs and Automated Fault Detection/Alert Systems will significantly improve radar surveillance coverage, tracking accuracy and reliability rate. All the hypotheses were found to be statistically significant at 0.05 level of significance as against the alpha level of 0.10, therefore, all the null hypotheses are rejected. It can be concluded that although NAMA have laid a solid foundation for Radar services operation, for sustainable RADAR services delivery, efforts should be geared towards infrastructure upgrade/modernization, available funding for maintenance upgrades, continuous technical capacity building program, alternative power supply system and independent regulatory body to keep checking mate operations in line with global safety regulation.