FG To Privatise FAAN, Others

The Federal Government plans to privatise the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) as well as other agencies under the aviation industry.

There are fears that the planned privatisation and commercialisation of the agencies will not promote growth as it may lack transparency like previous exercises.

The exercise which is coming under the government’s transformation agenda is being opposed by some stakeholders who said government cannot be trusted to be transparent in the privatisation of institutions such as NCAT and FAAN.

President of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Safiyatu Mohamed said the NCAT was not established for profit making, but for building capacity for the aviation sector.

Mohammed noted that the rationale behind the planned sale was borne out of lack of experience by those saddled with running the industry, pointing out that they ought to be grounded to know that such key institutions cannot be considered for profit making because as he put it, NCAT is mandated to produce experts such as pilots, air traffic controllers/engineers and other categories of professionals.

Said he: “any attempt to deviate from such mandate will not serve the collective purpose for which it was established”, adding “there is a process to be followed if government wants to privatise any agency in the industry”.

According to him, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has a list of companies to be privatised and “we can report to anybody that NCAT is not part of such organisations because it was established by an Act of Parliament for the training of pilots, air traffic engineers, air traffic controllers and other professionals”.

Shedie Okpara