The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, says, it is making giant strides in ensuring that every passenger that passes through her terminals are satisfied.
General Manager, Customer Service/SERVICOM, Mrs. Ebele Okoye who stated this at the just concluded 2-day Workshop by SERVICOM Institute for staff of Federal Ministry of Aviation, FAAN and other agencies on Open Government Partnership, OGP and Charter development and review said, public does not know the differences between FAAN, the service she renders and other agencies and the services they render.
She explained that, as a result, whatever happens at the airport is ascribed to FAAN, adding that there is need to educate the public about the agencies in the airports and the services each provides.
Okoye said, the Customer Service staff at the various airports are doing their best in the handling of complaints but that there are areas that are not within the purview of FAAN of which Customer Service officers cannot achieve much result despite substantial efforts.
Using flight cancellations as an example, the GM Customer Service, said that FAAN front desk officers fights to ensure that passengers are compensated in line with global best practices but that FAAN does not have the power to wade the big stick on defaulting airlines.
In a brief address, Mrs. Nnenna Akajimeli, SERVICOM Coordinator/Managing Director, urged all the participants to take the workshop seriously and implement lessons learnt in their various organizations.
She thanked FAAN Managing Director who she described as customer-centric, adding that the large number of participants from FAAN underscores the customer-centricity of FAAN Managing Director and effusively requested that her commendation be sent to him.
She was however not comfortable with announcements in the airports.
While rounding off, she pointed out that, the SERVICOM bill has reached the Public Hearing stage in National Assembly and instructed MDAs to send the bill to their Permanent Secretaries/Managing Directors for their input as the bill will hold organizations highly accountable.
Other agencies present in the workshop were Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and Federal University Lokoja.
The agencies present were the ones selected by SERVICOM for the implementation of the pilot phase of the OGP initiatives.
At the end of the highly impactful, participatory and interactive workshop participants understood the overall aim of the OGP initiative and the implications to negligence member commitments, how to conduct an in-depth review of service charters based on guidelines and principles of transparency and Accountability, how Service Charter is a veritable tool for promoting the OGP initiative, how to develop more customer-focused service standards and how to encourage citizen participation in achieving organization’s vision and set goals.
What is OGP?
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an international multi-stakeholder platform to make governments more accountable, inclusive and responsive to citizens. It was founded in 2011 by governments and civil society leaders. It now involves 78 nationals, 20 local governments and thousands of civil society organizations who have together developed over 3200 commitments. It is equally governed by a steering committee comprising eleven governments and eleven civil society leaders.
The OGP has over 200 National Action Plans (NAPs), more than 4095 commitments, exists in 78 countries and has 49 multi-stakeholder forum including Nigeria. Nigeria committed herself to the OGP initiatives and principles in 2016. The four key principles of OGP is Transparency, Accountability, Citizen participation and Technology and Innovation. Every participating member commits herself to budget transparency, access to information, asset disclosure and citizens’ participation.
