200 pilots, engineers, others to join the industry in the next 10 years

Director, Airworthiness Standards, NCAA, Engr. Kayode Ajibola Capt. Godwin Akosin, NCAA and Mr. Babawande Afolabi at the news conference

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority NCAA, says, initiatives by airlines in addressing the dearth of manpower in the industry will get its full support.

Such initiatives, the NCAA says would not only grow the sector, it would help to sustain the zero accident so far recorded in the industry for over 10 years.

Speaking at the launch of an initiative by one of the domestic airlines to train over 1,440 technical personnel in the next decade, the Director airworthiness Standards, NCAA, Mr. Kayode Ajibola said, the agency is elated to know that many pilots, maintenance engineers and other technical personnel who perhaps have been trained and waiting to be employed for years taken off the unemployment market and given the opportunity to contribute their quota to the development and safety of the industry.

According to him, the airline management must first give consideration to Nigerians over foreigners to sustain the initiative.”To sustain whatever you are trying to do, you cannot sustain it by having foreign manpower to be the majority of your staff. However what will make are the people you have, the resources you have depends on you, your vision, your commitment and the people also believing and trusting you that you got their back”.

The initiator of the programme tagged g-future, Mr. Babawande Afolabi says, in the next decade, the company intends training 200 Captains,140 flight dispatchers, about 500 cabin crew, 100 engineers and about 500 other professionals. 

“Now we said ten years, this is not just going to be a ten years run, we believe in trying to get something done, there needs to be a timeline and needs to be measured. When we said 200 over ten years we already have a view about where we think we should be in 12 months, 18 months in 24 months”.

Director in charge of flight operations in the airline, Captain Sunday Arome said, the first sets of people to benefit from the programme would be technical personnel who have been trained and licensed like pilots who have been waiting for type rating.

“Are pilots and engineers who have already licensed but don’t have opportunity for job placement because they need type rating to add to be useful, those are the people who have been hanging in the streets two, three years, these are the people we are bringing onboard and beginning to turn them into pilots that can fly in the airlines”.

Those to be trained are expected to sign a bond that will be negotiated.