For commercial flights to continue to operate between Nigeria and the United States (US), a team from the US Transport Security Administration (TSA)is in the country to carry out security audit on the nation’s major airports.
The objective of the assessment is to ensure that Nigerian airports still maintains given security standards, which prompted the US to approve commercial flight service between the two countries almost two decades ago.
The team started with the security assessment of theMurtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. The audit, which was scheduled from June 10 to June 13, 2025, involves a comprehensive evaluation of security standards.
The five-person delegation is led by Aron Tomchuck and includes Lori Silcox, the US TSA representative for West Africa. Others on the team are Director, Regional Operation Centre, Abu Dhabi, Julian Persaud, as well as Richartha Bartley and Ruth Gaertner. They are working in close collaboration with Nigerian aviation security authorities.
The visit is focused on reviewing Nigeria’s implementation of Civil Aviation Security (AVSEC) Standards and Recommended Practices.
The standards are found in Annexes 14 and 17 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, to which Nigeria is a signatory. The team will inspect several critical areas of airport security operations.
Key areas of evaluation include: training and staff qualifications, access control, passenger and baggage screening procedures, and aircraft security. The team will also assess security of cargo, mail, and other goods. Emphasis will be placed on measures for special category passengers and prevention of unlawful interference.
Additionally, quality control systems, security culture, landside protection, and cybersecurity preparedness are also under review. The TSA team will re-evaluate earlier identified deficiencies to check if corrective actions have been properly implemented. These actions are part of Nigeria’s Corrective Action Plan (CAP).
As part of the ongoing MMIA Lagos security assessment, the US TSA team will inspect US-based aircraft operators, specifically Delta Airlines and United Airlines. The goal is to ensure compliance with TSA security regulations by both airlines and their ground service providers operating at the Lagos airport.
Supporting the US TSA are security officers from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Representing NCAA, is General Manager, Evaluation and Regulations, Mr. AkojaOkplefu. From FAAN, is the General Manager, AVSEC Operations, Mrs. Hilary Ibiere, who is leading her team.
According to FAAN, the joint effort reinforces the strong security partnership between the United States and Nigeria in advancing global aviation safety. It also underscores the strategic importance of MMIA as a major West African aviation hub. The visit affirms Nigeria’s commitment to meeting global aviation security standards.
THISDAY learnt that the outcome of the visit, if positive, would further help in aligning Nigeria’s aviation security with international benchmarks.
TSA audits approximately 300 foreign airports which offer last point of departure flights to the United States. This is to make sure that these airports meet the security standards approved by the US for airports that can process passengers travelling to the United and also to ensure that airlines coming to the US meet the given security and safety standards.
In preparation for the audit and in sustenance of high security standards at the airports, FAAN has completed professional training and retraining of 1,593 Aviation Security (AVSEC) personnel in various specialist areas who 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.
FAAN has also embarked 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 has also adopted a 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.
Also, in tandem with TSA requirements, FAAN in the last two years has embarked on modernising security equipment at the major airports which include Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano with state of the art security equipment.
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 equipmentis 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.
FAAN has also installed modern equipment for the screening of bags before they are taken to the aircraft. The bag starts its screening journey from the entrance of the terminal to check in desk, where the checked in bag is taken to the central baggage area, where the bag is again thoroughly screened before it is loaded into the aircraft.
At the Cargo terminal of Lagos airport, FAAN has also acquired modern security equipment for the screening of cargo taken to various parts of the world in line with ICAO standards. In fact, FAAN yielded to airlines’ request which insisted that the cargo they will airlift must be subjected to stiffer screening process to ensure that no incendiary or other prohibited objects accompany the cargo.
FAAN 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 trace amounts of explosive and narcotic threats.
The TSA team came at a period when the two major airports of Abuja and Lagos were recertified by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for meeting ICAO regulatory standards as domesticated by NCAA in the NCAR, 2023.
The agency closed open items after the 2023 International Civil Aviation Organisation Universal Safety Audit Program Continuous Monitoring Approach and in collaboration with NCAA, has prepared the Lagos and Abuja airports for the TSA assessment.
The last time TSA conducted a comprehensive audit of Nigeria’s airports was in 2016, when the organisation passed a vote of confidence on the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos following the conclusion of a five-day security assessment of the facility then.
At that time, the four-man TSA team expressed satisfaction with the level of the airport’s compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Standard and Recommended Practices.
Compared to the last time TSA conducted comprehensive audit of Nigeria’s international airports, so much has happened in terms infrastructure, training of security personnel, employment and training of high number of Aviation Security (AVSEC) in adequate number.
Nigeria’s air travel sector has also made significant progress since then, which hopefully the TSA team will attest to.
