Chinedu Eze
20 November 2008
Lagos — The Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Demuren, has called for the dedication of certain percentage of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) for training of Nigerian aviation personnel.
He made the call while speaking at the stakeholders' forum of the International Aviation College (IAC) Ilorin Kwara State held in Lagos last Wednesday.
"We have neglected the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) for too long. It did not produce pilots for several years. That is over now. We need aviation training institutions where pilots, Air Traffic Controllers and other professionals should be trained," he stressed.
Noting that aviation brings prosperity to a nation, he said that Nigeria should dedicate certain percentage of the BASA fund for the training of pilots.
He insisted that Nigerian needs more aviation training schools, stressing that pilots and ATC are not produced over night.
He said that the IAC is coming at the right time when the country is suffering from the paucity of manpower in the aviation industry with ageing work force, adding that to plan for the future the present situation is not good for the industry.
Demuren stated that aviation is capital intensive and that if $10 billion is injected into the sector today, it would not be able to solve all the problems, adding that NCAA would give the school the needed assistance to succeed.
He regretted that while Nigeria is still struggling to have the second aviation training school, South Africa has about 30 aviation training institutions.
Speaking at the event the Kwara State Commissioner for Works and Transport, Barrister, Razak Atunwa, said that the state government had committed a total of N1.5 billion to the IAC project for its initial take off, adding that the programme would be run by the state government in partnership with the private sector under the Public, Private Partnership arrangement.
He said that the state government is willing to welcome more partners, noting that with the success of the state, many airlines in the country would be saved the huge foreign exchange, which is expended in overseas training.
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