Ghana

1) What have been your achievements in CAA and aviation in your country in 2022 ?

• Area of Safety

Ghana has been implementing its Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to address findings from the ICVM conducted in 2019 where we scored 89.89%. All Audit Areas meet weekly to review the CAP and upload supporting evidence onto the ICAO Online Framework (OLF).

Establishment of a National and an In-House RPAS Committees – A National Level Committee has been established and chaired by the GCAA RPAS Coordinator. The National Level Committee consists of the GCAA, Ghana Airports Company Limited, Ghana Police, National Security, Immigration, Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Air Force, National Communication Authority, Ministry of Transport and National Commission for Civic Education. Similarly, Following the development and implementation of the Directives on RPAS, an in-house RPAS Implementation Committee has been established to ensure oversight of drone activities in Ghana. The Committee is headed by a Coordinator appointed by the Director-General, and they conduct registration, licensing and surveillance of the operations of RPAS and Remote Pilots.

GCAA is a member of the ICAO RPAS and actively contributes to the work of Panel. GCAA is also serves on the panel for Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS), the largest international organization working to support and complement ICAO’s rulemaking. ICAO works to harmonize rules for international IFR operations. JARUS work is geared more towards operations that do not fit under ICAO’s remit.

• Cooperation with Neighbouring States

Ghana has provided and continues to provide Assistance Missions to neighboring countries in Aerodrome Certification, Helideck Assessments, and preparation and conduct of ICAO Audit and ICVM activities.

• State Safety Programme:

Ghana has established and fully implemented its Sate Safety Programme (SSP) which is headed by an SSP Coordinator appointed by the Director-General. The coordinator manages the SSP office and its staff.

As part of the implementation of the SSP and in line with ICAO requirements, a Coordination Group known as the National Aviation Safety Group has been established with a responsibility to meet periodically and review established safety policies and objectives that drive the SSP Implementation to ensure they remain relevant to emerging trends and practices. The Coordination Group has a representation from key State Institutions with a role in aviation safety and includes the following:

1. Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIB-Ghana)
2. Ghana Air Force (GAF)
3. National Communications Authority (NCA)
4. Ghana Nuclear Regulatory Authority (GNRA)
5. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
6. Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMET)

• National Aviation Safety Plan

Ghana National Aviation Safety Plan (NASP) has been developed and published, meeting the deadline set by ICAO that States should publish their NASP by 31st May 2022. The NASP sets out strategy for continuous improvement of aviation safety for a period of five (5) years and reviewed every two (2) years. The NASP identifies key safety issues within the Ghana Aviation industry and outlines goals and targets to be achieved for the identified safety issue.

• State Safety Reporting System

Ghana has established and implemented an occurrence reporting system at the State level known as the State Safety Reporting System (SSRS). This is a single source safety reporting system which serves as a Mandatory Occurrence Reporting System (MORS) and Voluntary Occurrence Reporting System (VORS). A web portal has also been developed as part of the System to serve as a centralized point for collection of reported occurrences from the industry. Access to the portal is shared to both GCAA and AIB-Ghana to facilitate data analysis and decision making.

An Occurrence Classification Team has been established at the State level to meet weekly to review reported occurrences and appropriately classify the occurrences in accordance with ICAO Classification scheme. The Team comprises representatives from the regulatory Units of SRD and AIB-Ghana and serves as an arrangement in enhancing the collaboration and coordination between GCAA and AIB-Ghana in the processing reported occurrences for further action by the two Entities.

• SMS Surveillance

As part of the implementation of the SSP, the Authority is conducting dedicated SMS Surveillance in addition to its existing oversight activities. As a result, various mechanisms and activities have been put in place to engage service providers and operators to ensure adequate understanding of the requirements and processes. E.g., just last month, an SMS Workshop was held for service providers and operators to provide further understanding in their SMS implementation.

GCADs Part 36 has been promulgated to provide the regulatory framework for the industry in their SMS implementation. Additionally, various guidance materials are being developed to support the industry in their SMS implementation.

• Licensing of Air Traffic Safety Engineers

The GCAA has completed the certification of Ghana Civil Aviation Training Academy (GATA) to conduct the training of Air Traffic Safety Engineering Personnel (ATSEP) Licensing in Ghana. Currently, 17 Engineers are undergoing training to be issued with ATSEP License upon successful completion of the course.

• Certification of KIA & Ground Handling Operators

GCAA conducted the renewal process and completed the Certification of the Kotoka International Airport for the next 5 years, December 2022 to December 2027. This is the second renewal of the aerodrome certification after the initial certification in 2015.

Ghana has initiated the certification of Ground Handling Operators. The GCAA completed its first Ground Handling Operator Certification in December 2022 and is continuing with the certification of the other operators.

• Deployment of Enhanced Surveillance System within the Acc. FIR

In 2022, GCAA deployed robust and enhanced surveillance systems to enhance surveillance within the Accra Flight Information Region.

• Election of Ghana to the Pt. III of ICAO General Assembly

At the last ICAO general assembly that took place in Montreal, Canada, end of September and beginning of October 2022, Ghana was elected an ICAO Council Member.

• Recovery From COVID-19

The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority has been able to recover from the negative impacts of the COVID -19 pandemic without job losses.

Implementation of energy conservation measures to reduce energy consumption.

2) What are your challenges and how can AFCAC assist you?

Ghana faces challenges with surveillance data sharing with adjoining FIRs due to security implications and lack of trust between neighboring FIRs, inadequate telecommunication infrastructure, connectivity, and technology, and the financial burden of Ghana being the hub of the data sharing program. It will be most appreciated to have AFCAC to facilitate technical assistance and financial support in these areas.

Ghana also faces a financial burden of flight calibration, thus requires the technical assistance from AFCAC in this regard.

AFCAC’s financial support for the re-engineering of the obsolete AFISNET infrastructure will be most appreciated.

We also face a very high cost of running our Communication, Navigation and Surveillance systems, as well as the Air Traffic Management systems.

Ghana will be grateful if AFCAC could provide support in technical training for personnel in areas of Air Transport, Facilitation, Consumer Protection, Competition Regulations.

Additionally, regular training is required for initial (ab initio), continuous, specialized, OJT and refresher for Aviation Safety and Security Inspectors. AFCAC should continue its support to Ghana in training and capacity building.

3) Your commitment to SAATM: how are you going to proceed with the implementation?

Ghana as a State has always been committed to the liberalization of air transport services on the continent by harmonizing its policies with those of the Yamoussoukro Decision, served on the Ministerial Working Group on the operationalization of the SAATM. Ghana also executed the Concrete Measures towards actualizing the Declaration of Solemn Commitment by African Union (AU) member States Implementation of the 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) and the establishment of a Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).

Ghana participates in various meeting, workshops and conferences organized by AFCAC/AU/ICAO with respect to the implementation of the SAATM. In December 2022, we hosted an AU/AFCAC Workshop to discuss the Regulatory Instruments of the YD and SAATM.

Ghana does not only freely grant 5^th Freedom Traffic Rights to Eligible African Airlines on the intra-African routes, but was one of the first State Party to also authorized Proxy-designation to KQ upon request of Sierra-Leone to operate on its behalf on the Accra – Freetown route.

4) What can you say about SAATM PIP?

Although the continent has been working towards the implementation of the SAATM for some time now, there hasn’t been any considerable achievement. The Project Implementation Pilot (PIP) is another such excellent initiative by the Executing Agency (AFCAC) that is highly welcome by Ghana.  Ghana also strongly supports the PIP which identifies and ensures that only the States “willing and able “to expedite the full implementation of the YD, devoid of feet dragging, excuses etc from members of this “club”. It’s for this reason that Ghana’s delegation to the launch of the PIP was led by the Deputy Minister of Transport. Hopefully, this pilot project with assist the continent identify and surmount any challenges that may arise from the implementation of the SAATM.