NCAA Saves N2b on Overseas Training
Paucity of funds occasioned by dwindling revenue inflow and scarcity of foreign exchange has forced the management of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to look inward by domesticating some of its training programmes, saving the country over N2 billion yearly in capital flight.
The largest percentage of NCAA’s budget goes on training of its personnel, especially the Aviation Safety Inspectors (ASIs), most of whom are holders of various Licenses and Ratings subject to mandatory yearly upgrades and renewals.
NCAA is currently being owed huge amounts of money arising from five per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSA) and five per cent Cargo Sales Charge (TSA & CSC) by the airlines and it has resulted into face up recently forcing the Captain Mukhtar Usman-led management to think out of the box by domesticating some hitherto overseas training programmes.
A top official of the NCAA who spoke to New Telegraph under condition of anonymity said to keep the aviation regulatory afloat, the NCAA chief has entered into several agreements with leading aviation bodies around the world to bring into Nigeria the resource persons from those institutions to conduct the training programmes within NCAA Training facility in Lagos.
The source stated that some of the International Aviation Training Organizations include the ICAO, US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) among others.
In fact, a similar FAA/NCAA training programme with participants drawn from the Authority, sister agencies and some African countries was conducted in Lagos in September 2016.
“The domestication of most of the classroom-based trainings has benefited the Authority more,” said an NCAA official who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. “Many staff are now taking advantage of such exercise being conducted locally in the country. Management has been able to save scarce forex without compromising manpower development or safety.”
Another NCAA personnel involved in the training programme explained, “We are in the business of regulating the whole gamut of the industry and as such our personnel must continually be exposed to training and retraining to maintain the highest standards on their ratings as and when due.”
It was, however, gathered that some of the domestication of the trainings may not have gone down well with some staff because of the possible loss of estacode and other allowances that usually accrue to them whenever such overseas trainings are embarked upon.
Some of the international training programmes that were domesticated and conducted in Nigeria in which participants were drawn from the country and other African countries include, IATA Safety Oversight Diploma Programme, aircraft airworthiness and Air Carriers Certificates October 2014, managing the safety Oversight functions , October 2014.
Others are Civil Aviation Authorities [CAA] Compliance with ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices[SARP], FAA Training on Surveilance of Service Providers Course from July -September 2015, Flight Standard Group (FSG) Indoctrination Course from 13th 17thOctober, 2014; 17th -21st November, 2015, aircraft Accident Investigation Course organized by BAGAIA in Lagos in October,2015, aircraft Accident Investigation Course organized by BAGAIA in Abuja in November, 2015.
Also included are government Safety Inspectors (GSI) Co operations Course in December, 2015, government Safety Inspectors (GSI) Airworthiness Course from July 2015 – 11th -27th of January, 2016, safety Oversight Inspectors [Aerodromes ] Course in 2016, and government Safety Inspectors [GSI] Personnel Licensing Course organized by FAA in Lagos throughout September 2016
