Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has called for increased funding and specialised training to strengthen its capacity to investigate transport accidents and prevent their recurrence across the aviation, maritime, rail and road sectors.

The Bureau said inadequate funding had become a major challenge since its mandate was expanded to cover accident and serious incident investigations across multiple modes of transportation.

Speaking on Friday, the Director-General of NSIB, Capt. Alex Badeh, said the agency required additional resources and equipment to improve its response to accident incidents, particularly in the maritime and rail sectors.

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Badeh said some of the equipment needed by the Bureau to respond more quickly and effectively to incidents could not be acquired because of funding constraints.

He also stressed the importance of continuous training for investigators and other professionals to strengthen expertise and improve the quality and efficiency of investigations.

“One thing that would help is if we got the funding from NIMASA because it’s really for the maritime-led accidents. Right now, we are using the air money to do maritime investigation, so it is affecting us,” Badeh said.

According to him, the Bureau has continued to operate with budget deficits because funding contributions expected from agencies within its expanded mandate have not commenced.

“We are constantly running on a budget deficit every year as a result of this. But I am hopeful that now that we are in the Presidency, they are taking a closer look at this. Hopefully, things will get better moving forward,” he said.

Badeh also disclosed that NSIB currently has 407 employees but needs more personnel to effectively carry out its expanded responsibilities.

However, he said the Bureau was prioritising capacity building for its existing workforce before considering further recruitment.

“The Bureau has 407 employees. I think we can look inward and try to build capacity first with those that are interested before opening up the floodgates again to hire people,” he said.

The NSIB chief explained that the Bureau could also strengthen collaboration with other agencies, particularly in road accident investigations, instead of handling every case independently.

“We don’t have to investigate every accident alone. In cases of road traffic accidents, we can work side by side with the police and they could learn a thing or two from us and we could learn from them, just like we work with Road Safety,” he said.

Badeh described NSIB as a specialised, knowledge-driven agency, stressing that funding was necessary not only to recruit additional personnel but also to retain and develop existing staff.

“We need more people. Long answer. It is not as easy to hire people as people think because we are a software agency,” he said.

He added that the Bureau’s immediate priority was to secure adequate funding, improve staff remuneration and upskill existing personnel before embarking on further recruitment.

“So the first thing we need to do is find the funding. I need to be able to afford the people that I am hiring. Secondly, I would love to increase the pay. So we are working on those things internally.

“We will try to upskill people in here, then we will look at hiring people,” he said.

The NSIB was established under the NSIB Act 2022, which mandates the Bureau to conduct objective and thorough investigations into accidents and serious incidents across aviation, maritime, rail and other modes of transportation in Nigeria.

The findings from such investigations are intended to identify safety deficiencies and make recommendations aimed at preventing similar accidents and incidents from occurring in the future.