By Sade Williams
For domesticating training of technical personnel, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said it has saved over N1 billion.
Disclosing this at the weekend during the oversight visit of members of the National Assembly committees on aviation, led by Smart Adeyemi of the Senate and Nnolim Nnaji of the House of Representatives, Musa Nuhu, director general of the NCAA, said that though there is still need for some trainings to be done abroad due to lack of capacities in Nigeria, the in-house training done so far has saved the sector a fortune.
Nuhu, who itemised the types of training that has been domesticated to include Safety Inspector Personnel Licensing; Resolution of Safety Concerns (RSC) Course and Auditing Techniques, painted a picture of what it would have cost at a foreign Approved Training Organisation (ATO).
“On Government Safety Inspector Personnel Licensing, the Authority has developed in-house capacity to deliver this course. The lead instructor is an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)-certified instructor and an ICAO certified Auditor in the Personnel Licensing audit area.
“There is an assistant instructor and three On-the-Job instructors for efficient and seamless succession. As at November 2020 Nigeria was deficient by 179 inspectors but today, 140 have successfully completed this course remaining 39, saving $4,500 plus $7,239= $11,739 + Air ticket per inspector.
“On Resolution of Safety Concerns (RSC) Course, the Authority has developed the in-house capacity to facilitate this training. Instructors are both from the Legal Department and the Inspectorate offices. There are three On-the-Job Training (OJT) instructors that will ensure efficient and seamless succession. Nigeria was deficient by 283 inspectors but today 220 have successfully completed this course remaining 63 saving $1,869 + Air ticket per inspector.
“On Auditing Techniques, the Authority had developed an in-house capability to deliver this course. The two instructors are very experienced, they understudied the two instructors from European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Kenya. There are also two OJT instructors on this course. Nigeria was deficient by 144 inspectors but today, 120 Personnel have successfully completed this course remaining 24 and saving $1,500 + $1,905=$3,405 + Air ticket per inspector.”, he said.
While breaking down the cost of NCAA personnel training at a foreign ATO, he said the amount would be $3,120,528 and (N71,600,000+N57,600,000) = N129,200,000 only.
Nuhu also disclosed that the NCAA is installing a Flight Simulation Laboratory that will animate the total flight experience and give inspectors and investigators step by step detailed account of the entirety of a flight scenario with in-depth analysis.
On Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), he said the NCAA is implementing the digitalising of all its documents for high availability, better storage and retrieval to authorised personnel.
“NCAA currently has 2 EDMS Centres in Abuja and Lagos, respectively, the Authority is aggressively working towards automating all its processes to ensure aviation safety,” he added.
Nuhu also disclosed that the NCAA is acquiring and deploying Regulatory Safety Oversight Software (EMPIC), a robust Regulatory Software system which elite Civil Aviation bodies worldwide are implementing to automate the safety and regulatory programmes.
He said Nigeria is the 3rd country after South Africa and Kenya to acquire this Software.
He also said the NCAA has successfully deployed a Wide Area Network (WAN) across Nigeria to facilitate seamless communication with high-definition Video Conferencing Facilities in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Kaduna and High Definition Video and IP Phones across the regions.
