Give us quick access to drone licence, Nigerians demand

Nigerians are demanding easy access to procuring and using drones. This development came to light as stakeholders at the just concluded 2nd Drone Technology Conference Expo, Dronetecx 2022, organised by NIGAV, advocated for the simplification of the process of acquiring drone licence in the country to enable Nigeria tap from the benefits of the technology. The three day programme was held at the NIGAV Expo Centre Murtala Muhammed Airport Lagos and had deliberations on various topics including: National Security Challenges of Drone Operations: What the industry need to know to keep our airspace safe and free from intrusion. “Interrelationship in Drone Technology And Communication”. “Drone and Airport Airspace Safety ” and “The Prospects and Challenges of Drone Services In Nigeria”, amongst others. One of the  key note speakers at the conference, Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau Nigeria , AIB-N Engineer Akin Olateru , said the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, should not be the only body saddled with the responsibility of granting approval for drone license.

“The  simplification of the approval processes for drone licence is ungently needed if Nigeria is to gain from the immerse benefits of the technology.  The world has moved and drones open huge opportunities for betterment of the country. For thousands of approvals to be coming from the very busy Office of the National Security Adviser ( ONSA) is a lot and the office is more occupied with important things than approving individual drone requests. He also said once approvals come effortlessly the drone technology can be used in areas that ” aid humanity including agriculture, medicals, traffic management, security and a lot of other areas.”

Earlier in his welcome address, Mr Fortune Idu, chairman, Dronetecx 2022 said before the end of this decade , the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV and autonomous vehicle industry will experience exponential growth and the application  of drones will be found in virtually every sector. “This emerging industry is a game changer with huge potential to create jobs in software and hardware engineering while empowering other sectors to deliver speed, efficiency and cost effective services,” he said. He therefore led his voice to the cry for the federal government to simplify the process of acquiring license and usage of drones in the country to enable the country benefit from the technology. Other stakeholders also called on the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA , to hasten the process and bring out the full guidelines needed to ” stir the industry as well as expedite actions on the release of drone regulations, ease the process of drone and making the process of licensing drone pilots seamless and affordable,” they said.

The conference communique also noted that training and capacity building is essential for the drone industry to thrive and tasked the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology(NCAT) ” to lead the unified body of the training organisations in drone so as to bring up an agreed standard of learning requirements which must be growth orientated and inclusive.”