Pilots, Engineers’ Training To Gulp $20m… Minister Admits Dearth Of Aviation Personnel

Onyekachi Ucheonye

Aviation Minister, Babatunde Omotoba, has said that $20 million out of the $65 million accruing from the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) would be spent on the training of airline pilots and engineers at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT).

Omotoba acknowledged that dearth of aviation personnel has hit the industry saying that the scholarship would aid manpower development.

The minister further said that Nigeria is duty bound to invest in its own people by giving them the opportunity to acquire the technical know-how so they may help develop the industry.

He dismissed the notion that the beneficiaries of the scholarship would leave after the training without working in the country to justify what government had spent on them.

“There is no need to worry about whether these trained manpower will leave the country for greener pastures in the nearest future,” said Omotoba.

He maintained that the federal government “is focused on aviation development” adding that, Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the purchase of an aircraft to train aviation personnel at NCAT.

On the concession of the nation’s four airports, he said the federal government had resolved to hands off the funding of airports by embracing the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.

He said that government at the moment would not afford to build an airport maintaining that partnership with the private sector would salvage the situation.

“Aviation”, he said is capital intensive and because we know that the federal government does not have money, it cannot build a new terminal.  Terminal 5 was built with $10 billion and that is the budget for aviation 2008.

“The fact is that the budget excluding internally generated revenue is little; the federal government cannot do it.  To build Lagos alone can take about N150 billion and we do not have that kind of money,” Omotoba said.