No going back on TSA implementation – NAMA

Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, General Manager, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), says the agency will continue to ensure total compliance with the presidential directive on implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) in its transactions.

NAMA Spokesman, Khalid Emele, said in a statement on Monday that Akinkuotu made the remark at a recent sensitisation forum with agents and representatives of operators of non-scheduled flights in the country.

The NAMA boss said the forum was organised to dialogue with operators and fashion out ways to address concerns arising from the process of adjusting to the new cashless payment system.

Akinkuotu said there was no going back on the Federal Government’s cashless policy and that it was an executive pronouncement that demanded total compliance from all stakeholders.

He appealed to non-scheduled operators to embrace the new initiative as the entire world was going cashless.

Akinkuotu assured them that the new system would yield positive results that would benefit the entire industry.

“This is an innovation that would not only improve and sanitise the nation’s financial system but also ensure accountability and transparency in the long run.

“If we desire an aviation industry that is globally competitive, we have to imbibe global best practices,” he said.

According to him, the associated risk and needless exposure associated with the old system of carrying cash around has ensured that it was no longer fashionable.

Akinkuotu said that with the directive, all financial transactions with the agency must be done through monetary transfers (only) into the NAMA TSA account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He added that the era of paying cash to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) for onward delivery to the CBN had become history.

Speaking on behalf of the non-scheduled operators in attendance, the Managing Director of Sunrise International Air Support Ltd, Mr Sunny Ebisue, expressed gratitude to NAMA for organising the forum.

Ebisue said the forum had shed more light on some of the grey areas that attended the new payment system.

He, however, called on the agency to sustain such interaction with operators in order to keep them abreast with new developments.