The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has dismissed claims that it wasted ₦7.58 billion on Category III Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) installed at airports in Lagos and Abuja, insisting that the actual approved contract for the equipment was ₦1.19 billion.
NAMA said the report, published on September 11, 2026, was based on a fundamental error in the identification of the contract sum and also misunderstood the technical and operational requirements for Category III landing operations.
The agency said the approved contract for the supply and installation of CAT III-capable ILS and Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) for the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, was precisely ₦1,188,139,913.90.
According to NAMA, the contract was awarded to Alolis Geo-Science Nigeria Limited, representing Leonardo SPA, formerly Selex, with approvals from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The agency said the ₦7.58 billion figure quoted in the report did not represent the contract value or money paid by NAMA.
It explained that the figure could be traced to a 2019 newspaper estimate which assumed that each runway would cost approximately US$3 million and subsequently extrapolated the amount to seven proposed airport locations.
NAMA maintained that the estimate was never the approved contract sum for the Lagos and Abuja installations.
“The report cited no contract, payment certificate, appropriation, audit finding or other official record establishing that either ₦7.58 billion or ₦30.02 billion was awarded or paid for the Lagos and Abuja installations,” the agency said.
It therefore rejected the subsequent calculation which reportedly converted the alleged ₦7.58 billion into ₦30.02 billion in current value, arguing that inflation or currency conversion could not turn a newspaper estimate into evidence of public expenditure.
Beyond the disputed figures, NAMA said the report also failed to distinguish between installing CAT III-capable navigation equipment and achieving full CAT III operational capability at an airport.
It explained that an ILS is a complete navigation system incorporating a localiser, which provides lateral guidance, and a glide path, which provides vertical guidance.
The agency therefore said it was technically incorrect to describe the localiser as an additional facility which NAMA failed to provide.
More importantly, it stressed that the installation of CAT III-capable ILS/DME equipment alone could not make an airport capable of CAT III operations.
According to the agency, CAT III operations require a coordinated system involving a calibrated and serviceable ILS, approved instrument approach procedures, appropriate approach and runway lighting, touchdown-zone and runway-centreline lighting, runway visual-range reporting, reliable primary and standby power and protection of ILS critical and sensitive areas.
The system must also be supported by activated low-visibility procedures, CAT III-compliant aircraft, certified operators and appropriately trained flight crews.
NAMA said responsibility for these requirements was distributed among different aviation agencies and operators.
At FAAN-managed airports, airfield ground lighting and airport power fall under the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria’s responsibilities, while NAMA provides navigation and air traffic services infrastructure.
The NCAA is responsible for regulating and approving operations, while meteorological services provided by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), as well as the capabilities of aircraft and flight crews, are also essential to CAT III operations.
NAMA consequently argued that failure to provide any complementary aerodrome facility could not fairly be interpreted as evidence that it had failed to provide the ILS.
The agency also provided a detailed account of what happened after the CAT III-capable equipment was installed on Lagos Runway 18R.
It said pilots began reporting that the equipment could take aircraft off course during final approach and could also shut down unexpectedly.
The reports, NAMA said, raised serious safety concerns and resulted in international airlines resorting to Runway 18L.
The agency said the problems were not isolated incidents but persisted from the installation period until concerns were raised by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) over the safety of the equipment and its tendency to transmit misleading parameters to aircraft.
NAMA added that it received operational reports from air traffic controllers, the Safety Management System unit, international airlines and Air Traffic Engineers.
The reports, according to the agency, increasingly pointed to the need for intervention because the equipment was becoming a safety concern.
NAMA said the associated lighting facilities required for CAT III operations were also unavailable, while meteorological input from NiMet remained necessary.
Following consultations with relevant stakeholders and approval by the supervising ministry, the agency said the equipment was replaced with CAT II capability pending the availability of the complementary facilities required for CAT III operations.
The replacement was subsequently calibrated and subjected to the required checks.
NAMA said a similar situation applied to the Abuja facility, which was also downgraded from CAT III capability to CAT II because the airport did not have the complete ecosystem required to support CAT III operations.
The agency said Nigeria had, in practical terms, never achieved full CAT III operations despite the installation of CAT III-capable equipment.
“The truth of the matter is that we never had CAT III in Nigeria; it was merely a name,” NAMA stated.
It said the downgrade reflected the absence of complementary facilities, including suitable runway lighting, CAT III-compliant aircraft, appropriately trained crews and stable power supply.
Despite acknowledging the subsequent reliability problems, NAMA strongly rejected the assertion that the systems “never worked for one day”.
The agency said its operational records showed that the Lagos Runway 18R and Abuja Runway 22 facilities were commissioned, certified and promulgated for operation in February 2020 after realignment, recalibration and validation.
It said this commissioning record directly contradicted the claim that the systems had never functioned.
NAMA, however, acknowledged that integrity and serviceability problems subsequently developed.
It said recurrent problems with the Lagos installation eventually made continued reliance on the system unacceptable. The agency also raised concerns about the Selex platform’s fleet commonality, training requirements, availability of spare parts and lifecycle support.
According to NAMA, its existing maintenance environment had greater familiarity with Thales and Indra systems.
It argued that continuing to operate a safety-critical navigation aid whose integrity could not consistently be guaranteed would itself constitute a risk.
“A safety-critical navigational aid that cannot consistently demonstrate the required integrity must be downgraded, withdrawn or replaced. That is safety management, not waste,” the agency said.
Second phase cost ₦2.37bn
NAMA also disputed the report’s account of the second phase of the ILS programme.
The agency said the second phase was designed to cover Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Port Harcourt International Airport and Katsina Airport, rather than Maiduguri and Sokoto airports.
It said the initial approved sum was ₦1,824,643,438.33.
An augmentation of ₦546,109,336.33 subsequently raised the total approved project value to ₦2,370,752,774.66.
NAMA said implementation was affected by funding constraints, as well as legitimate concerns about repeating the reliability, commissioning, spare-parts and lifecycle-support challenges encountered during the first phase.
The agency also rejected allegations attributed to anonymous sources that the ILS programme was a vehicle for “cornering” public funds.
It said no audit report, judicial decision, procurement investigation or other competent determination had been cited to substantiate the allegation.
NAMA maintained that anonymous allegations should not be presented as established facts without supporting evidence.
The agency also challenged the report’s treatment of Nigeria’s Total Radar Coverage (TRACON).
NAMA said the core TRACON architecture had been deployed for more than 15 years, leaving some critical hardware increasingly obsolete.
It said replacement components and manufacturer support were becoming difficult to obtain, with Thales, the original equipment manufacturer, proposing replacement rather than another limited modernisation exercise.
According to NAMA, Nigeria now needs a more resilient surveillance architecture integrating primary and secondary radar with technologies such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and wide-area multilateration.
The upgraded architecture, it said, would provide redundancy, support national-security coordination and accommodate future expansion.
On the Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) automation project, NAMA said the present management inherited the contractual obligation and neither awarded nor initiated the project.
It said it had nevertheless continued to honour the inherited contract, with payment now close to full settlement.
The agency, however, stressed that settling an inherited contract did not mean its original technical specifications remained adequate for current aviation requirements.
It pointed to advances in digital aeronautical information management, structured data exchange, cybersecurity, interoperability and system-wide information management since the project commenced.
NAMA further clarified that AIS automation should not be confused with Very High Frequency (VHF) pilot-controller communication infrastructure.
AIS, it explained, focuses on the collection, validation, management and distribution of aeronautical data and publications, while VHF communication is a separate service used for voice communication between pilots and air traffic controllers.
Both systems, however, require reliable power and telecommunications infrastructure.
NAMA said it welcomed legitimate scrutiny of its expenditure but urged the media and other stakeholders to distinguish between estimates and actual contract sums, procurement and operational performance, and safety interventions and waste.
The agency reaffirmed that it would continue to prioritise the safety and efficiency of Nigerian airspace and would not allow concerns over previous investments to override the need to protect the flying public.
It maintained that replacing or downgrading safety-critical equipment when its operational integrity becomes questionable is an essential part of responsible airspace management rather than evidence of financial waste.
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