Dr.Danjuma Ismaila

The Nigerian College of Avation Technology(NCAT),Zaria in Kaduna State is faced with the challenge of providing infrastructure to cater for the rising enrolment of students and other professionals.

Rector of the College,Dr.Danjuma Ismaila who made this known during interview with  journalists in Zaria stated that the  mandate given him is 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.

He emphasized that 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 continent.

The aviation industry,he said,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 your work is based on ICAO standards and recommended practice.

“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 parts of the world. That means that we have opportunities to serve every part of the world. For instance, if a training on ATPL certificate whether you obtain it here is the same thing elsewhere certified by the UK CAA.”

“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.

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 simulator here and will soon start operating it . By  the time we start operating it,then, people will be queuing on our own side because it is scarce globally and this will fetch us a lot of foreign exchange.”

On the issue of accommodation,Dr.Ismaila is of the opinion that  the previous management of the college did not give it the attention it requires 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.”

He disclosed that the college has another programme that is right now  attracting foreign national like  Egyptians who have been  pleading with NCAT to 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 in many of our courses, we charge them in dollars.”

On investment to reposition and  improve the facilities,

“there are some infrastructure that are of critical need and these are infrastructure that will facilitate us to position the college. One of these is befitting accommodation.”

“ Most of the accommodation are in shambles or in incorrect shape where you cannot present them to say this is what we have. You can easily renovate them or upgrade them to the standard that we want them to be.”

“ Another one is to have classrooms and also have facilities, especially technical facilities for the different type of courses. Many courses that are  required by aviation professionals globally and locally  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 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. Some of our clients have huge number of prospective. But we have limited number of people we can take especially in terms of air traffic controllers. They 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.”

“There are different types of simulators and all the simulators for every aircraft are in Nigeria. We know that it is not going to be easy. No country tells you that they have all aircraft simulators. Emirates is there, they have selected the ones they want. It is business. You just don’t tie your capital on aircraft that are not popular for use.”

“We are going to select the ones that are very popular in the country that you know that is in high demand and that someone has Dash 8 and you go and bring Dash 8 and at the end of the day, after a month that you did not see anybody patronizing it, that is a waste of or resources or tying down your capital. You choose the one that you know are popular in our society or region.”

“ The B737 is the  highest number of aircraft that we have and that is why we have flight simulator that is B737. I think by our own analysis, B737 is the popular aircraft that we have  CRJ is also coming up. If we can get support from government to get additional simulators for us, that will be ok. Let us start with this one to see how it is going to be accepted by the market, not only in Nigeria but globally. Once it is accepted, then, we can go for additional one.

On  projection for 2025 the Rector explained:

“To project what you are going to have this year or next year  is going to be difficult for me in the sense that I am trying to get support from government in terms of funding. If I get the fund when I now increase my capacity, that is when I can make projection but if now I have increased my capacity to so so number in terms of our equipment, in terms of infrastructure, I can see that I will get so so number.”

“I am struggling to get support from the government so that we can build this equipment and infrastructure. By next year, whatever we get and put in place, then, we can be able to say yes that by so so period, this is going to be our projection.”

Speaking further,Doctor Ismaila said he could not estimate the total cost of what the School needs but  knows the projects that “I required like the full flight simulator purchased about five years ago and still lying down not being put to use.”

“ I now set up a task force which I gave them three months to fix all outstanding issues. First, they are talking about licence or certificate by the NCAA and I was able to meet NCAA. I met the management of NCAA. I told them our predicament that the college has invested in this and that, in manpower development, training of our personnel and their personnel and we were able to achieve a lot.

“ They have now agreed that they are coming upper week to come and start processing the certification. Hopefully, in a month or two from now, our simulator will be put to use. NCAA has the capacity to certify the simulator. We have trained some of their personnel. If they don’t have the capacity, they are at liberty to collaborate with their sister agencies. That is the essence of collaboration and partnership where you have a weakness and your partner assists you.”

“When I came in, one of the challenges I encountered here was that we have many staff leaving the place because of poor pay and right now, NCAT staff are the lowest paid in the aviation agencies. That is affecting our ability to retain staff. Most of our trained staff left for greener pasture. Some of them went to private airlines.”

“ What we are planning to do is come out with a policy to develop our internal capacity. We are going to sign bond. We are going to sit down with NCAA to ensure that certificates granted to them can only be used for NCAT training purpose and not to give you certificate and you go and work some where else.”

“ You have to stay here and work for us. We can’t spend money on you and you go elsewhere. These are some of the strategies we are going to use. Another approach we are going to use is that we have approached salaries and wages commission.  I  have talked to the people that the college needs to be given special considerations in terms of salary package so as to close the gaps with the industry.”

“This is exactly what the oil sector did to petroleum training institute. There is no so much gap in their salaries with the oil industry. That is why they are able to retain their experts. We too need to be treated in that manner. For now, there is salary disparity.”