Positive Effect of FAAN Capacity Building

Chinedu Eze

One of the critical programmes that were revived in the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) since Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku took over as the Managing Director of the agency is the manpower development programme.

In the past, it used to be spontaneous, occasional exercise when some departments in the agency pressure and get approval and funding from the management, but since the President Tinubu administration it became imbedded as developmental programme by FAAN management, designed to build local capacity.

Maybe Kuku took a cue from Airport Council International (ACI), which emphasises manpower development as critical part of airport development because skilled hands are needed to manage critical airport infrastructure, passenger facilitation, airport security, marshaling, runway safety and many others.

Observers are of the view that efficient airport management requires professionals to blend traditional aviation knowledge with advanced digital fluency. Critical technology skills include data analytic and predictive modelling, which is using technology tools to interpret real-time passenger flow, optimising flight schedules and preventing bottlenecks.

Special skills are needed also to protect critical airport infrastructure from digital attacks and understanding modern threats and how to detect them. This is the reason why aviation security personnel need continuous training. Besides, the new state-of-the-art security equipment acquired by Kuku’s management deployed at passenger and cargo terminals for passenger and cargo screening, needs IT savvy personnel for efficient and maximum usage.

Last year, the Directorate of Aviation Security Services at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria completed professional training and retraining of 1,593 Aviation Security (AVSEC) personnel in various specialist areas.

FAAN stated that with the training, more AVSEC personnel were deployed to different airports in the country under FAAN’s management for more effective security coverage of the facilities, monitoring and enhanced passenger facilitation both at the airports managed by the agency and state and privately-owned airports. FAAN overseas the security of all airports in the country, and also embarks on improving its training facilities, which include the repositioning of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) approved FAAN training facility in Lagos for effective delivery of international AVSEC courses.

FAAN executed enhanced airport security surveillance and response systems at the airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Benin, Yola, Ibadan and Maiduguri. 

These are new-generation airport security solutions that harness advanced technologies like video surveillance, face recognition, video analytics, perimeter intrusion detection, and sophisticated access control systems that can help enhance security measures and streamline operations. They enable airports to adapt to the evolving security landscape and create safer environments for travellers and staff.

FAAN has also designed portal for real-time AVSEC database on training, operations, equipment and manpower. It has in addition implemented a comprehensive AVSEC manpower audit for planning and enhanced service delivery.

The training of AVSEC personnel was important because they ought to have skills that could enable them manage the modern security equipment acquired by the agency in line with Standard and Recommended Practices (SARPS), which are technical specifications adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Some of the equipment include: state-of-the-art Rapiscan Orion 928DX, a sophisticated screening machine installed at the entrance of the new international terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. It is spectrum 4-colour imaging machine, which can exhibit images in the Classic 4-color and the new proprietary Spectrum 4-color (SP4) option providing superior image, allowing improved security by quick and accurate identification of threats and increase in throughput.

The equipment is designed to detect a wide range of explosives and narcotics respectively in real time during the scanning process by marking a potential threat on the X-ray image. Rapiscan Systems detection algorithms are based on regulatory approved material analysis techniques.

The federal government also installed E-gates at the Lagos and Abuja airports to enable travellers undergo biometric verification using facial or iris recognition, fingerprints, or a combination of modalities. This new equipment need skilled personnel. This is why FAAN embarked on continuous training of personnel to keep the workers abreast of modern technology driven equipment it has acquired to make passenger movement and security screening easy at the airports.

Some of the AVSEC personnel were trained to man the modern security equipment for the screening of cargo taken to various parts of the world.

The agency installed modern screening equipment for cargo called Rapiscan Itemizer 5X, which uses optimised detection libraries and advanced software algorithms, making it the ideal solution for detecting amounts of explosive and narcotic threats.

Another safety critical area in airport management is firefighting. Recently Nigerian Aviation Fire and Safety Association (NAFSA) has commended FAAN management for the training of fire fighters, just as the agency has been training other staff in other departments.

National President of NAFSA, Ugbeikwu Sunday, said recently that NAFSA had not experienced this kind of developmental and progressive strides as it has experienced under the administration of Kuku.

“Being a Private Sector Expert, she has brought the wealth of the Private Sector experience to bear in FAAN and the results are out there for everyone to see today,” he said.

“Unlike it was hitherto obtainable whereby Firefighters would attend training without the payment of their training allowances, Kuku ensured that every trainee receives his/her training allowances before the training invitation is sent to them. This gesture has ensured that the Firefighters are in the right frame of mind during their training. This is a deliberate departure from the past, whereby some Firefighters would even borrow money to attend trainings. Furthermore, Mrs Kuku ensured that the Competency Training which was hitherto undertaken at ERSI/ASECNA, Douala, Cameroon is now undertaken at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology(NCAT) Zaria, where the multi-purpose Aircraft Fire Simulator is put to use and has provided FAAN Firefighters with access to cutting-edge training facilities,” Sunday said.

In 2025 FAAN embarked on massive promotion of staff, which was said to be the largest in the history of FAAN.

“Management Promotion, though not a right, but a privilege, has always caused some mixed feelings amongst the staff members every Promotion Year, but the vast majority of those who took the 2025 Management Promotion were magnanimously promoted, courtesy of the goodwill of the Olubunmi Kuku. For instance, for the first time in the history of FAAN, about 125 Firefighters were promoted from GL 14 to GL 15, an unprecedented feat which NAFSA considers as major breakthrough occasioned by the good rapport of the Association with FAAN Management,” Sunday had said.

The National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) Labour Leader, Idowu Adeshola Eritex, told THISDAY in a telephone interview on Wednesday that Kuku’s manpower development was not limited to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria but encompassed other agencies whose personnel have to be trained in areas such as security for overall airport management.

He commended both the Managing Director of FAAN and the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, saying that the two have transformed the aviation industry.

“As the first female Managing Director and CEO of FAAN she has got it right. She has changed the face of major airports and improved the training of personnel. Nigeria passed the ICAO Audit in distinction category because she and the Minister were able to close the open items and upgraded the airports both in infrastructure and manpower development. Today, Nigeria exports more than it used to do through the airport because of the work Mrs. Kuku did at the cargo terminal and the training of personnel managing the affairs there,” Eritex said.

According to him, no worker can protest at this time because their welfare and training are being taken care of by the management that already has a vision on what to do before she was appointed.