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The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has disclosed plans to launch an automated portal to address the consumer protection needs of airline passengers and other stakeholders in the aviation sector.
The automated system, the Consumer Protection Department Portal (CPDP), is expected to assist NCAA staff in collating passengers’ complaints, resolving, and disseminating feedback to airlines promptly.
The Authority said the portal will help resolve complaints of flight delays or cancellations, missing luggage, ticket refunds, and other issues that airline users may encounter.
The Director General of NCAA, Capt. Chris Najomo, at a training organized for staff at the NCAA headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday ahead of the launch of the portal, said the portal will make it easy for the Authority to resolve complaints of the passengers.
Capt. Najomo, who was represented by the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection of the Authority, Michael Achimugu, said: “We know that without full automation, our processes will be hampered, and it will put a strain on our staff.
“We have 206 Consumer Protection staff working across all the terminals in Nigeria and this portal will make their jobs easier. It makes the process of complaints and their resolution easier.
“It is also for data collation because data has been a major issue in Nigeria. There is hardly any trustworthy data anywhere, and in the aviation industry, you cannot make proper plans without accurate data, and this portal will make it easy for all stakeholders”.
He added: “The portal breeds transparency because we are onboarding all the airlines where people will see the number of complaints sent about a particular airline and they would also be able to track the process of the resolution of the cases.
“So, it is a self-reporting system. If airlines don’t perform optimally, it will be there for all to see. So, there will be no need for us to name and shame because the portal will track the performances of various airlines.”
He added that the portal was ready and would be officially launched after staff of the Authority and airlines undergo training.
The Deputy General Manager of the ICT Department of NCAA, Akwaugo Mgbeokwere, said the switch from a manual process to an automated portal would enhance service delivery.
She said: “The consumer protection department deals with aviation consumers and we don’t want a situation where their complaints or issues are not properly handled. So, we have decided to automate the processes we do manually to enhance service delivery and ensure that our consumers are properly taken care of and are happy using the sector.
“Some of the issues that would be resolved are baggage complaints, flight cancellations, and other issues that happen at the airport. Before now, if there were complaints, we reported them to the CPD desk at the terminal where the issue was happening but with the portal, the process of documentation will be done and with that, we would have analysis of the issues that are going on and use it to assess airports and airlines that are fantastic in handling complaints from aviation users.
“The data we collate would also be used to determine the airlines that usually delay or cancel flights. It is the way to go to enhance service delivery in the aviation sector”.
A participant at the training, Amarachukwu Onoh said: “The training and the introduction of the portal will make my job easier, faster and more effective. Right now, we do online and offline documentation of complaints, but if we operate from the same portal, tracking of complaints will be easy.
“Before now, we had the challenge of having 50 to 100 emails of complaints coming in, and it becomes difficult to track and resolve, but with this portal, this challenge will become a thing of the past.”
