The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has endorsed an eSIM connectivity solution by Univasa Nigeria Limited, saying it could help address persistent internet connectivity challenges faced by Nigerian air passengers travelling outside the country.
The authority gave a “no objection” to the solution at a stakeholders’ engagement between the NCAA and Univasa in Abuja on Thursday, noting that reliable internet access could significantly improve passengers’ travel experience.
TheFact Daily reports the NCAA’s endorsement comes amid increasing attention to passenger experience in Nigeria’s aviation sector, with stakeholders seeking technology driven solutions to some of the challenges encountered by travellers before, during and after international journeys.
The eSIM service provides travellers with internet connectivity across more than 200 destinations and access to over 400 telecommunications networks globally.
Speaking at the engagement, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, NCAA, Michael Achimugu, said the authority was supporting the initiative because it addressed a recurring challenge confronting international travellers.
Achimugu said passengers often struggled to secure internet connectivity immediately after arriving in foreign countries, particularly when they needed to purchase local data or activate roaming services.
According to him, the NCAA’s intervention was driven by the need to identify and support solutions capable of making air travel more convenient for passengers.
“When we identify a problem, we seek to solve those problems. To make the travel experience better for Nigerian passengers,” he said.
Achimugu added that feedback from users of the service had been positive, stressing that the desire of passengers to remain connected with family members, businesses and other contacts while abroad had made internet connectivity an important component of the travel experience.
He further disclosed that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, uses the service when travelling abroad, alongside some chief executives in the aviation industry.
Also speaking, the NCAA’s Special Adviser to the Director-General, Ifueko Abdulmalik, said the authority was particularly interested in the solution from the perspective of passenger experience.
She noted that passengers travelling into and out of Nigeria frequently encountered connectivity difficulties, which could affect communication and their ability to navigate unfamiliar destinations.
“From the customer angle, we think that this would help passengers improve their travel experience,” Abdulmalik said.
The Managing Director of Univasa Nigeria Limited, Dr. Ben Adeniyi, said the company developed the service partly to ensure that international travellers remained connected from the moment they arrived at a new destination.
Adeniyi said the Univasa eSIM provides connectivity in more than 150 countries and over 200 destinations, while its physical SIM, known as P-SIM, caters to users whose phones do not support eSIM technology.
He said the growing dependence on internet services had made seamless connectivity increasingly important to international travellers who needed to communicate with family and friends at home as well as contacts at their destinations.
Adeniyi explained that the company was able to offer competitive pricing because of its capacity to purchase data in large volumes.
He said the service was designed to eliminate the inconvenience of searching for local SIM cards or expensive roaming options immediately after arriving in another country.
A partner with Univasa Nigeria Limited and Vice President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Engr. Dr. Halimat Adediran, said the company had agreements with numerous telecommunications networks globally.
According to her, the technology is capable of switching between available networks where the quality of a particular network becomes inadequate, thereby helping users maintain connectivity.
Adediran said the service could provide a convenient alternative to travellers who would otherwise have to purchase data or subscribe to roaming services from telecommunications operators in their destination countries.
