By Chinelo Obogo [email protected]
Nigeria’s aviation industry has grown from the time the first aircraft belonging to Royal Air Force (RAF) landed at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano on November 1, 1925.
Since the country gained independence in 1960, fundamental challenges like high operation costs, multiple taxation, inadequate funding, lack of infrastructure, scarcity of forex, poor corporate governance among others have adversely affect the sector.
It was for this reason that industry stakeholders were excited when the immediate past Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, was appointed as the first core aviation professional to be at the helm of affairs in a sector that has faced difficult challenges. Expectations were high that he was going to turn the sector around but at the end of his tenure, stakeholders gave a verdict that showed that their dreams were rather dashed. They scored him low and described his tenure as nothing short of a monumental disappointment.
The industry had achieved some gains especially in the area of safety, although the challenges persist. Sirika’s administration which was supposed to birth a world class Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility, an Aviation Leasing Company (ALC); Agro-Allied Terminals; Aerotropolis or Airport City; National Carrier; establishment of Africa Aerospace and Aviation University (Cargo AAAU) and airport concession failed to achieve any of its objectives.
On the assessment of Sirika’s administration, the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI), an apolitical think-tank, said that using former President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign promises as key performance indicators (KPI), the aviation industry headed by Sirika underperformed between from 2015 to 2023.
Expert speaks on way forward
Giving a brief history of what the sector was years agoand what is has become over time, Amos Akpan, an aviation expert told Daily Sun that from 1960 to 1988, Nigeria’s Aviation grew to number one position in Africa. But it began to deteriorate from the nineties, it began to fall due to bad corporate governance. He however noted that the Civil Aviation Act which was passed into law by the National Assembly was a good step in repositioning the industry as it gave Nigeria international standard aviation regulations.
“Nigeria Airways operated to all the domestic airports in Nigeria. Nigeria airways operated to all the countries we had bilateral air services agreement with. Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) in Zaria trained sufficient pilots, aircraft engineers/technicians, air traffic controllers for Nigeria Airways and other airline operators in the West African subregion. Nigeria Airways had international standard training school for passengers, cargo and operations officers.
“In the early nineteen nineties, Nigeria Airways began to fall due to bad corporate governance. It’s on record that Nigeria Airways was set up as a government corporation to provide air transport as welfare service. Corporate governance and sustainable business operations could not be achieved in a world where organisations were driven by investment on technological innovations from the nineties.
“The Federal Government decided to privatize aviation by allowing private investors to establish and run airlines, and general aviation. Private airlines like Intercontinental, Kabo, Okada, Gas, ADC were licensed and given rights to operate scheduled domestic and international charters flights between 1987 and 1990. These filled the gaps created by the dwindling Nigeria Airways. They absorbed the staff that were left by the dwindling national carrier. Unfortunately the privatisation remains in Nigeria aviation but the private operators have not been able to train sufficient personnel to replace or surpass the retired ones from the defunct Nigeria Airways.
“The Civil Aviation Act and the Civil Aviation Authority is the best thing that has happened to Nigeria Aviation. We now have international standard civil aviation regulations. We have personnel with capacity to certify procedures in the industry as well as carry out safety oversight on Operators including handling companies. As a result, flying in Nigeria now is as safe as flying in Europe or in America.”
He went further to enumerate the challenges still bedeviling the industry which he says need to be urgently addressed. “The government needs to provide guarantees for investors to access funds at single digit interest rates with a minimum of fifteen years repayment tenor. NCAT needs to be made to tailor their training to suit the current manpower needs of airline operators, handling companies, airspace management, maintenance repair overhaul Organizations, travel and cargo agencies. Also, manpower shortage must be urgently addressed.
“The existing MRO facilities like 7star global, Aero Contractors, Ibom should be encouraged to expand. They need space in their facilities to accommodate more aircraft. They need funds to import more equipment and train more technicians. Ibom MRO is the only facility with sufficient space but it has not started admitting operators’ aircraft. Nigeria’s aviation urgently needs capacity to take in aircraft for maintenance and release it back to service on scheduled time. Airline managers need to calibrate their business module. They need to grow routes with suitable aircraft types like 30 to 50-seaters. They need to get a platform that enables them accept each other’s tickets. This will eliminate passengers’ frustrations and make for optimal utilisation of available capacity provided by the operators. “There is urgent need for the industry to establish a data collation center. It is very difficult to access data in the industry now because all the agencies have different figures. Data is relevant for research and for planning.”