MRO:Nigeria Suffers N25bn Capital Flight
| Inability of Nigeria to have properly equipped and certified Maintenance Repair Overhaul centre to carry out major technical work on aircraft in Nigeria is costing the nation N25bn capital flight annually. .Each time aircraft operating in Nigeria are due for a major check,they are flown out to countries that have the facilities to carry out the maintenance. ..Aircraft mostly taken abroad for major overhaul or ‘C’ check are the Boeing 737.Nigeria has lost monumentally for not having a functional national aircraft maintenance centre.Besides the hard currency which the country needed badly,the technical benefit to the sector cannot be quantified..It is akin to aviation training institution. Extra Licence Aircraft Maintenance Engineers,technicians,cleaners are engaged by the maintenance company to strengthen it workforce during the major overhaul. It provides more boost for their manpower resources, opportunities for aircraft technical personnel in training to observe the process how the aircraft is stripped before its life span is renewed. A Licence Aircraft Maintenance Engineer who does not want his name mentioned said “Nigeria has lost so much to countries that have established MROs.Nigeria had a golden opportunity to build one many years ago. Because of unpatriotic and bitter politics among those saddled to advice the government, bungled the assignment. Nigeria is suitable for MROs.Our size, our popupation,vibrant aviation market, technical personnel are abound.Due to our internal squabbles, Boeing aircraft manufacturing company decided to go to Ethiopia where it set up aircraft overhaul company instead of Nigeria it had in mind initially. All the facilities in Ethiopia today were offered to Nigeria by Boeing.Our inability to agree on the MRO site robbed us of that golden opportunity. Which business man will want to invest his money in a hostile environment. The maintenance centre and the airline are the mainstay of Ethiopia today.” A committee set up by the Federal Government in 1986 put the cost of building a maintenance centre at One Hundred and Twenty Million Dollar ($120,000,000). One of the six points agenda of Senator Hadi Sirika,Minister of Aviation is to establish a Maintenance, Repairs and Overhaul.It is six years now. Nothing to indicate if the project has commenced. The cost of carry out total overhaul or comprehensive C-check on an aircraft ranges between $1m and $2m (N470 to N940m). Nigerian airlines spend about N23bn to N25bn annually on aircraft maintenance. At least, 70 aircraft are flown by eight scheduled operators in the country at the moment. The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has imposed a calendar limit for a C- Check at every 18 months. Speaking on the matter,Engr Lukman Animashaun notes that “Nigeria doesn’t have an MRO now because we are not serious about having it. Most of the things they are doing is politics and they are telling people what they want to hear at a particular time. Honestly, I must tell you that we are playing to the gallery. If truly we are serious as a nation, we should have gotten MRO now. We should have built on what we had in Nigeria Airways then, rather than liquidating it don’t let us talk about the liquidation of Nigeria Airways anymore. That has passed.” “But, I must tell you that without sustainable MRO in the country, the industry will continue to experience capital flight and what we are experiencing now, which is the moment the aircraft is due for heavy maintenance, it will be taken out, there is no foreign exchange to carry out the maintenance, the aircraft will remain there and the next we are going to hear about the aircraft is that it can’t be sent to Nigeria. That is one of the reasons we are having low capacity in the industry as at today.” “The federal government or any individual should build MRO facilities now. If they should do this, nobody will regret it because there is work for them throughout the year. This is the country where the weather has been so nice to us, unlike in Europe without good weather. It is good for us to have an MRO now.” Capital flight, “Let’s do the calculation. The minimum you can do a C-check now for any airline is $1m; there are some C-checks that can even go as high as $2m, depending on the way and manner the aircraft is maintained. Let’s keep to the minimum of $1m.” “Let’s say on the average, each airline has three aircraft, the number of aircraft scheduled airlines we have, multiple it by $1m. by the time you do that, you will realise that we are losing about $300m as capital flight annually. If you have an MRO in Nigeria, that will remain in the country”. According to Animashaun,without a sustainable MRO and the government looking at it, we will continue to be in a quagmire as we are having right away”. Grp. Capt. John Ojikutu: “Building aircraft maintenance depot has been on the government programmes as far back as the 80s, but for the instabilities of governments and its policies, the project remains in the tunnel and never to see the day lights as long as it remains with the government administrators. What is trending in the commercial aviation sector globally today is public private partnership. Government cannot regulate and still be sole operator aircraft and maintenance at any level.” He said the delay in getting an MRO set up in the country can only be either there is no clear understanding among those responsible for policy administration in government or between them and those in the private partnership. Ojikutu pointed out that government cannot be thinking of concession of a part of commercial aviation and still want to keep another; again, you cannot be a regulator of the industry and still be sole operator; either it excised itself from the ventures or be minority shareholder of not more than 20%; foreign technical and financial investors 30%; credible Nigerian investors 30% and the balance of the 20% for the Nigerian public. “Cost of aircraft offshore maintenance is and has always been exorbitant. It ranged between $500,000 to $2m depending on the required level of maintenance.” The retired Nigerian Air force officer explained “If you imagine about 50 aircraft in a year for whatever level and at average of $500,000 to $1m for an aircraft, you might be looking at total average of $25m to $50m.” “ The question to ask: do these airlines and aircraft operators make such earnings annually in returns to the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) or we still must find money for them from the public reserve? That is the dilemma of our country in distress and now bleeding. Peace” Recently, the chairman of,United Nigeria,the newest airline in Nigeria,Dr.Obiora Okonkwo,while addressing Aviation Correspondents in Lagos disclosed that he would be establishing maintenance centre that will be available to the public. He said this will curb capital flight from Nigeria which will ultimately boosts the nation’s economy. |
