Aviation College to address scarcity of female pilots - Rector

Shola Adekola, Lagos

The Nigerian College of Aviation Technology[NCAT], Zaria, stands as the backbone of the industry in Nigeria, based on its role in the training of pilots, engineers and other personnel who contribute to making the industry attain its goals particularly in the area of safe flying. SHOLA ADEKOLA takes up the Rector of the college, Captain Adebayo Araba, on issues affecting the college. Exerpts:

There are few female pilots in the industry now, what priorities are you giving to female students who are vying for admission into the flying school?
If the female students don’t apply, what can we do? We can only interview those who applied but in order to encourage the girls, I am going to make sure they are employed because they are so few, provided they are medically okay. You can see that those of them who have been shortlisted for interview are those found to be okay educationally and medically fit and that is why they have been shortlisted.

How would you describe patronage from authorities?
Since I came on board, it has been wonderful and I have been having patronage from virtually all the airlines. I mean Arik, Bristow Helicopters, Aero Contractors, Associated Aviation and a host of others. Even those that are pursuing their Air Operators’ Certificates are bringing their people here for training, because our job is to train manpower for the industry as soon as you come on board, people are here ready to give you training. Arik is superb, we are holding 19 pilots for them ab initio.

The House Committee on Aviation just came visiting the college, what was their mission and comment on the development of the school?
They came for oversight functions, they came to assess our facilities and to discuss with us whether we have been having difficulties with accessing our funds and to see if there is any problem with the enabling act establishing NCAT, they wanted to know whether the act was making it difficult for us to progress at a faster pace than we are going now.

And what was your response?
We just got the circular from the Ministry, we are going to study it and forward our response to them.

What have been your challenges since you assumed duties?
There is fund that we have been trying to access since 2004 and it’s pending, it is N3.6billion for the infrastructure of this college. It has been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), we have done all processes but one way or the other, the money is still hanging there.

What about the share from the N19.5b aviation intervention fund?
We never got a penny from that, this is a special funding from the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) fund. What we are going to do with the hanging money if we get it is already on ground, the money has been allocated to do so many things and if it comes, we just have to implement it. Like the fire fighting simulator, we have also been trying to get one airplane for a long time now, the TBM 850, a single engine aeroplane also from the BASA fund.

Are you having any relationship or affiliation with any international college/organisation?
No, not yet, but its part of my long term vision for the college, we are going to do that and we are going to be there because we are just coming very close to what we are supposed to be years back. By the time we are what we should be and be beyond that, we may have to call on so many companies.

Simulator training has been a big issue consuming a lot of money from pilots, what are you doing about it?
Yes we are buying an aircraft from Boeing for about $40m, it’s a Classic Level D aircraft, we are not going to buy second hand. We have a lot of pilots in Nigeria who need the compulsory training. I once met a highly placed man in Zaria who told me that he had the intention of telling the government to bring an expatriate to come and run this college that he was given the impression that nobody can do it in this country until I got to this place. They told him that this place was dead and nothing could be done unless they bring expatriates, now we have turned the place around. Talking about the simulation training, we are going to be doing it very soon, I have written to the NCAA and once we meet the requirements, we are going to open it up.

If you are having enough people in here, what do you have to say about manpower shortage in the industry as a whole?
When talk about manpower shortage in the aviation industry, we are talking about Pilots and Engineers. NCAT is supposed to be turning out at regular intervals Pilots for the consumption of the industry, but for the past fifteen years, the college was unable to do that because of so many reasons. I just came and when I came in, there were only two serviceable aircraft, we cant get much from this for training people, now after six months of this new era, we have about 17 serviceable airplanes, I have a lot of trained Pilots with some sent overseas for recurrent training, they are all back in the country. We are really going to be very busy next year and in another two days, we are inviting over 300 candidates for interview, out of this, we will pick sixty, you can imagine training sixty Pilots for the industry, it’s a gradual process, but for now, there is nothing we can do about the influx of expatriates into the industry but I bet you that in less than two years, it will dwindle and may be by the third year, it will be a thing of the past.

What is your vision for the college?
Like I told you, I have a passion for this school and apart from that , I was a student here, I was also an instructor and I knew what NCAT was, now I am coming back as the accounting officer, I have been given a responsibility now on what I know how to do best that is the success story.

We have enough manpower, I have hired more people to complement whatever they had on ground, likewise the instructors, I have to bring people from the industry, especially those that graduated from the school, because they were once students of the school I don’t have start educating them on what they are supposed to do, they are conversant with what we are doing . We are presently holding 27 pilots and they are going to graduate by February 2008 but by March we are going to have about sixty students