Congo assumes leadership of Assac-Ac
A measured yet unmistakable sense of momentum pervaded the headquarters of the Agency for the Supervision of Aviation Safety in Central Africa on 17 October, as Brazzaville hosted the seventh ministerial session of the organisation. During the ceremony, the Congolese Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation and Merchant Marine, Ingrid Olga Ghislaine Ebouka-Babackas, formally accepted the gavel from her Central African counterpart Herbert Gotran Ndjono-Ahaba. By doing so, Congo not only assumed the rotating chair of the committee of ministers but also accepted what the incoming president called a collective “duty to protect lives and foster connectivity” across a sub-region that extends from the Gulf of Guinea to the banks of the Ubangi.
Three strategic priorities unveiled
In her inaugural address, Minister Ebouka-Babackas distilled her programme into three inter-dependent pillars. First, she underscored the imperative of bolstering safety oversight at a time when global passenger flows are projected to rebound to pre-pandemic levels. Second, she pointed to the need for a predictable financial base, praising the embryonic regional security fee while advocating additional instruments to cushion exchange-rate volatility. Finally, she insisted that continuous professional development must become “a reflex rather than an exception”, citing the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s call for a new generation of African air-traffic inspectors.
Continuity and institutional memory
The outgoing chair, Minister Ndjono-Ahaba, used his valedictory remarks to remind delegates that institutional achievements rarely materialise overnight. Over the past mandate the agency has secured specialised staff in technical, legal, information-technology and administrative domains; operationalised its core headquarters; and adopted manuals that codify procedures from incident notification to the certification of maintenance organisations. “Our successor inherits a compass, not a straightjacket,” he observed, expressing confidence in the Congolese minister’s “perpetual quest for efficiency”.
Financial architecture under scrutiny
The commissioner of the agency, Dr Francial Giscard Baudin Libengué Dobelé-Kpoka, placed fiscal matters at the centre of the day’s deliberations. Five of the seven CEMAC states already apply the Regional Security Fee, generating what he said was a 120 percent increase in the agency’s budget, while Gabon is completing the requisite procedures. Yet arrears in statutory contributions persist. The commissioner therefore urged each capital to honour its equal-share dues and to transmit the proceeds of the fee without delay, warning that “security cannot be collateral damage of budgetary cycles”.
Human capital and training imperative
Beyond balance sheets, the committee devoted particular attention to skills. Dr Dobelé-Kpoka announced a forthcoming external audit designed to map training gaps and to recommend partnerships with regional academies. Minister Ebouka-Babackas echoed that objective, arguing that crisis-management proficiency must become a marker of the region’s professionalism. In her words, “runways may differ, yet the margin for error is universally narrow”.
Regulatory harmonisation by 2026
On the normative front, the agency has shepherded a suite of regional implementing regulations for aerodrome certification, operator licensing and incident reporting. Nonetheless, their legal force depends on transposition into domestic law. Delegates therefore endorsed a political pledge to complete that process by the end of 2026, an agenda the commissioner described as “ambitious but indispensable” if Central Africa is to speak with one voice in multilateral fora.
À retenir
Brazzaville’s chairmanship symbolises a push for collective responsibility in an airspace that spans rainforest corridors and emerging oil hubs. The rapid uptake of the Regional Security Fee demonstrates political willingness to match ambitions with resources, while the forthcoming audit is expected to anchor transparency. Observers note that the central message of the session — safety as a non-negotiable public good — resonates with the African Union’s 2063 Agenda for seamless connectivity.
Le point juridique/éco
From a legal standpoint, the agency rests on a multilateral convention that grants it supranational inspection powers, a rarity within CEMAC. The efficacy of those powers will hinge on the domestic incorporation of the 2026 regulatory package. Economically, stable funding through the security fee offers a counter-cyclical cushion, yet the instrument must be ring-fenced to avoid diversion to unrelated expenditure. Analysts argue that the Congolese presidency’s emphasis on fiscal orthodoxy could consolidate investor confidence in the region’s nascent aviation market.