Sade Williams/Business a.m.
Danjuma Adamu Ismaila, rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT)
Danjuma Adamu Ismaila is the rector of Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT). In this interview, he spoke about a college that has produced brilliant pilots and engineers championing the sector’s progress over the years, its current potentials and challenges.
On rising enrolment and infrastructure to cater for the students and other professionals
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 on 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 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 part of the world. That means that we have opportunities to serve every part of the world. For instance, if it’s a training on ATPL certificate, whether you obtain it here, it 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 the opportunity to have participants from all over the world. Some of the courses we run are in collaboration with ICAO. We [can] generate a lot of foreign exchange into the country. We have the potential to generate foreign exchange to the nation. 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.
One of the challenges I am facing here is the issue of accommodation. Some of you are here for training and we had to accommodate you outside. 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 an 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 organise a programme for them on June 16. One of our instrument ratings wanted to have 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 in English only that we don’t have the right infrastructure that will attract them. When we have the right infrastructure, we can attract these foreigners because our own charges are affordable by most of these countries when you compare with other parts of the world. When you go to the US and other places, people are struggling to pay hotel bills because they are in dollars; but when they come here, whatever they pay, they realise that this is very cheap even though many of our courses we charge them in dollars.
On the investment to reposition to improve facilities
Like I said, 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 a befitting accommodation. Most of the accommodations are in shambles or not in the correct shape that you can present to say this is what we have. You can easily renovate them or upgrade them to the standard that we want to be. Another one is to have classrooms and also have facilities, especially technical facilities for the different types of courses. [For] 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 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 the 1960s. We need to upgrade them to look modern. A student has a choice, especially the one that is used to the international arena. When he comes here, he will respect us. We have to modernise our buildings so that it can give us international status. We are in the position of upgrading our classrooms to international standards. We are upgrading our facilities, equipment to accommodate more. Some of our clients have a huge number of prospective students. But we have a 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 in 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.
On aircraft simulators
There are different types of simulators and all the simulators for every aircraft we have 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 to aircraft that are not popular for use. We are going to select the ones that are very popular in the country that you know are in high demand and [not] that someone has Dash 8 and you go and bring Dash 8 and at the end of the day, after a month, you did not see anybody patronizing it, that is a waste of resources or tying down your capital. You choose the one that you know is popular in our society or region. The B737 is the highest number of aircraft that we have and that is why we have a flight simulator that is B737. I think by our own analysis, the B737 is the most popular aircraft that we have; CRJ is also coming up. If we can get support from the government to get additional simulators, 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 an additional one.
What is your projection for 2025?
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 the government in terms of funding. If I get the fund where I now increase my capacity, that is when I can make a projection; but if now I have increased my capacity to a number in terms of our equipment, in terms of infrastructure, I can see that I will get a particular 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 will be able to say yes that by this period, this is going to be our projection.
How much is this funding gap?
I cannot estimate but I know the projects that I require. There were the low hanging fruits that were unattended 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 a license or certificate by the NCAA and I was able to meet with the NCAA. I met the management of the 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 in the upper week coming to start processing the certification. Hopefully, in a month or two from now, our simulator will be put to use. The 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. Right now, we are not concerned about who is coming whether them or their partners.
On workforce and plan to retain these talented professionals, as well as a succession plan
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, we have the lowest paid among the aviation agencies. That is affecting our ability to retain staff. Most of our trained staff left for greener pastures. Some of them went to private airlines. What we are planning to do is to come out with a policy to develop our internal capacity. We are going to sign a bond. We are going to sit down with the NCAA to ensure that certificates granted to them can only be used for NCAT training purposes and not to give you a certificate and you go and work somewhere else. You have to stay here and work for us. We can’t spend money and have 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 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 the petroleum training institute. There is not so much of a 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 a salary disparity.
