LAGOS – The Federal Government and private organisations have been urged to enhance investment in Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) in a bid to sustain and enhance the current safety in the Nigerian airspace. Mr. Tayo John, the Director, Air Service of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), gave the appeal over the weekend in Abuja in a weeklong Nigerian Army Aviation Workshop on Aviation Safety Management Systems. John in his lecture titled: ‘The Role of Air Navigation Service Providers in Aviation Safety Management,’ said that air navigation safety was critical in ensuring the safe operation of aircraft and in ensuring prevention of accidents or incidents to airspace users. He, however, said that ANSPs in Nigeria was grossly underfunded and confronted with technological and manpower challenges. John added that the ANSPs were also confronted with drone operations, which made incursion into the airspace due to their uncoordinated activities. The NAMA Director, emphasised that ANSPs play critical roles in air safety and national security, hence it should receive every support it could from both government and non-governmental bodies. He declared that these were the inevitable pointers to seamless, safe, efficient and orderly air navigation services in any country and required every attention from organisation. Some of the key aspects of ANSPs are Air Traffic Control (ATC), flight information service, alerting services and navigation services, among the others. Their primary role is to ensure safe and efficient air traffic management, guiding aircraft through takeoff, landing and en route phases. According to him, accurate navigation and real time tracking of flights would result in safe and efficient management of airspace. John added that in a bid to ensure the safe and orderly flow of air traffic within the Nigerian airspace, the airspace was segmented into aerodrome, approach and area control services covering the ground and aerodrome operations, terminal and en-route. He noted that this organisational structure also aimed to enhance safety and ensure compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Standards and Recommended practices (SARPs). He added: “ANSPs are responsible for restructuring the airspace to optimize traffic flow and reduce congestions, thereby minimizing delays and furthermore, reducing pilot and controller workload. “Currently, Nigeria is at the forefront of the establishment and implementation of the Free Route Airspace (FRA) in Africa, thereby encouraging airspace capacity utilisation, and setting the pace for increased growth in Africa.”