The Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Mr. Abdulsalam Muhammed, said that the Federal Government is currently subsidising the cost of training pilots in the country in a bid to grow the Nigerian aviation industry. Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Muhammed also faulted calls for the establishment of more aviation training institutions, stating that what is needed is the expansion of existing training facilities to meet the manpower needs of the industry.
He noted that the subsidy on the training of pilots was to ensure that it is affordable to everyone, adding that NCAT’s fees remain one of the cheapest around the West African sub-region. He said, “Our courses and school fees are subsidized. It looks expensive, but it is the cheapest place that you can train anywhere, because of the government subsidy. What we charge is about one-third what other schools charge here for the same training.
“This subsidy policy of the government is to make the training affordable to ordinary Nigerians. The last two years that the currency lost its value, we still maintain our school fees, even though we have dollar-denominated expenses. We buy aircraft, spare parts and even aircraft fuels in US dollars. We are not over-charging contrary to what people believe.” He also stated that NCAT was earlier in the week certified as a Regional Training Centre of Excellence, which had opened a world of opportunities for the college.
He said, “The attainment of the Regional Training Centre of Excellence opens a world of opportunities for NCAT, because now we can develop training programmes in all of ICAO annexes, that is in fields of air transport, air navigation, facilitation, environment, safety and security. By virtue of these, actually we can develop training programmes in all the fields of aviation and these training programmes can be used worldwide by ICAO Trainier Plus members. “It also gives us the opportunity to send our qualified instructors, anywhere in the world to go and conduct training. This also gives our instructors international exposure. Currently, NCAT has the highest number of qualified instructors that are certified by ICAO. This is an achievement that we got for two consecutive years now.”
In addition, Muhammed noted that expanding the capabilities of the existing aviation training institutions would help in further growing the country’s aviation industry, conserve the scarce foreign exchange and help airlines operating in the country save money. To this end, he disclosed that this was what spurred NCAT to acquire a Boeing 737 simulator, which he declared would be installed in its facility in Zaria, Kaduna State. He said, “I do not think there is any need to establish another training organisation for aviation in Nigeria. We have a school in Kwara, while we also have another school in Enugu that trains helicopter pilots. I do not think there is the need to establish another school.
“What we just need to do is to expand our training capability so that we can introduce more courses that are relevant to the airline industry, so that they would not have to send their staff abroad for training. It is in recognition of this that the management of NCAT decided to acquire a Boeing 737 simulator. As you know, it is a legal requirement for pilots of commercial aircrafts to undergo recurrent training every six months and this training is done in simulators. The practice, up till date, is for the pilots to go outside the country because we do not have such simulators in Nigeria.”
Continuing, Muhammed said, “NCAT analysed this and decided to install a Boeing 737 simulator in Zaria. The choice of the 737 is because it is the most commonly used by aircrafts Nigerian airlines, including the Presidential air fleet. That is what informed the choice of the Boeing 737 simulator, which would be installed in Zaria sometimes next year. “When that is done, we would be able to give 737 Type Rating. Pilots would not need to go abroad to get trained on the 737 and they can also do their recurrent training in Zaria, thereby, conserving our meagre foreign exchange and saving the airlines a lot of money.”
