The federal government has given the management of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria a marching order to make the college financially viable and independent.
Currently the College gets its funding from government subvention, fees paid by students and a share of Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo Sales Charge (CSC), which the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) collects on behalf of all the agencies, except the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
THISDAY learnt that the fees the school collects from students takes care of the student accommodation, feeding and others and for private pilot licence, the student pays about N23 million in the latest fee review which insiders say it is not enough and may be the lowest in Africa and beyond because other reputable schools like NCAT charge about $50, 000 to $80, 000 while the College charges equivalence of $20, 000.
THISDAY also learnt that although government provides subvention and also funds the school’s project but the subvention and school fees could not sustain the school but for about 23 per cent share its gets from the TSC and CSC, which augments the other earnings.
The Rector of NCAT, Dr. Danjuma Ismaila, spoke recently about the mandate given to him to make the College financially autonomous.
“This is one of the challenges I am facing here. The mandate given me was to reposition the college in such a way to make it financially independent and boost its revenue and also to increase its impact not only to Nigeria but the whole of Africa. The College has the potential to serve all the training needs of the aviation industry and even attract participants from other African countries and other continents. The aviation industry is a global phenomenon and whatever you have here certified by the NCAA is equally the same thing with what you obtain in other parts of the world because you work based on ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) standards and recommended practices.
“The standard being certified by the NCAA is the same standard being certified by UK CAA. You can acquire your training or licensing in every part of the world. That means that we have opportunities to serve every part of the world. For instance, if training on ATPL (Air Transport Private Licence) certificate whether you obtain it here is the same thing elsewhere certified by the UK CAA. Our CAA is being certified by the NCAA which is equally ICAO certified. We have opportunity to have participants from all over the world. Some of the courses we run them in collaboration with ICAO. We generate a lot of foreign exchange into the country. We have the potential to generate foreign exchange to the nation,” he said.
He said the flight simulator, which was installed some time ago, would soon start operations and it is hoped to attract more students and this means more money and more foreign exchange for the school and Nigeria.
“If by the time our flight simulators start operation, we are expecting more participation from Asian countries. Right now, both Nigerian pilots and Asian pilots are queuing in Dubai waiting for the period to go and attend the flight simulator training. We have it here and will soon start operating it here. By then, people will be queuing on our own side because it is scarce globally and this will fetch us a lot of foreign exchange,” the Rector said.
THISDAY learnt that there is even an upsurge of students already which seem to stretch the existing accommodation but by the time the simulator becomes operational and more people realised that NCAT is a go-to place for aviation training, the upsurge will increase, especially from other African countries and other parts of the world.
“One of the challenges I am facing here is the issue of accommodation. I think previous management of the college did not give that the attention it required or they were not so aggressive in terms of looking for developing critical infrastructure. For me and the Minister of Aviation, we are working day and night to see how we can reposition this college. This is a simple challenge; it is not technical. It is just issue of accommodation, limiting us for our intake. The college has another programme. Right now, we are expecting some Egyptians. They are pleading with us to come and organize a programme for them on June 16. One of our instrument rating wanted to have a training on that. They are controllers from Egypt and wanted to learn. Some two months back, we trained some French speaking countries who wanted to learn aviation English only that we don’t have the right infrastructure that will attract them.
“When we put the right infrastructure, we can attract these foreigners because our own charges are affordable by most of these countries when you compare it with other parts of the world. When you go to US and other places, people are grappling to pay hotel bills because they are in dollars but when they come here, whatever they pay, they realize that this is very cheap even though many of our courses, we charge them in dollars,” the Rector further said.
On investment to improve facilities in the school, Ismaila said there were some infrastructure that were of critical need and would enhance the repositioning of the school. One of these is befitting accommodation.
He said currently, most of the accommodations available are in shambles or in bad shape.So, the school has to provide adequate accommodation by building new hostels, renovating and possibly expanding existing ones and upgrading them to a higher standard to meet international expectations.
“Another one is to have classrooms and also have facilities, especially technical facilities for the different type of courses. Many courses that are being required by aviation professionals globally and locally; we need all of these facilities in place. Some of these facilities also need to be continued to be upgraded. Even if you own the facility, it is not the end of it. We need to continue to upgrade the system, cultivating new developments and new areas and that is why we need a lot of investments. We need to make the facilities truly look international.
“Some of these buildings in the school are as old as 1960s. We need to upgrade them to look modern. A student has a choice especially the one that is used to international arena. When he comes here, he will respect us. We have to modernize our buildings so that it can give us international status. We are in the position of upgrading our classrooms to international standard. We are upgrading our facilities, equipment to accommodate more. Students are complaining bitterly that we cannot satisfy their training needs. We are working on that like the 3D simulator where we can take many people to be trained. Most of them require this training before they can be promoted to certain levels. We are going to have additional participation and when you have additional participation, you will have revenue,” he said.
