Key players stress need for local content development board for aviation

The necessity of establishing a Local Content Development Board for the country’s aviation sector has again been brought to the fore at the Breakfast Business Meeting (BBM) organised by the industry think tank group, AviationRound Table (ART) in Lagos.

At the meeting which had in attendance movers and shakers in the sector and other professional groups from other sectors, it was unanimously agreed that as applicable in the other important sectors like the oil and gas, embracing the local content development board will tackle the controversy in the areas of TG recruitment of aviation professionals.

The communique issued at the end if the meeting therefore called for an interagency/ inter- Ministerial ad-hoc body comprising the Ministry of the Interior , the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development to collaborate and ensure proper monitoring and compliance with Local Content Law on expatriate quotas and the excessive use of foreign personnel to fill manpower gaps in the Aviation Sector.

The participants also called for an immediate review of merger of the Licensing Directorate with Flight Operations at the NCAA in the interest of safety and in conformity with global best practices as recommended by the International Civil Aviation Authority ICAO.

The attention of the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development together with other aviation agencies was drawn to the need to initiate civil aviation policies to address the existing differences in professional employee demands among aviation organizations and address their specific needs rather than the existing one size -fits- all policies .

The need for the  NCAA and industry stakeholders to consider resourcing and recruiting young professionals with the requisite education and training into aviation was also brought before the NCAA and other relevant authorities with the belief that

it “will address  the discouraging experience where individuals have been trained and found no jobs, thereby  discouraging others from looking to the sector.  This consideration applies to every area in the industry, from pilots to engineers to air traffic engineering personnel and flight dispatchers”.

The gathering unanimously resolved that the mass exodus of aviation professionals from Nigerian airlines, agencies and others is not a total depletion or loss for Nigeria, but should be seen as a further expansion of its formidable  diasporan net worth.

The key players lamented the astronomical cost of ab-initio training across the industry which  has gone beyond the capacity of ordinary citizens to fund, unlike what was obtainable in the past when there was a substantial amount of scholarships in the industry.

The Meeting therefore called for the establishment of Scholarships Schemes from states and both public and private organizations for the funding of  training of a significant number of young people as well as provide for the continuous training and upgrade of professionals and  in the industry.

The stakeholders further called for the industry stakeholders to reach out to retired professionals to consult for the NCAA, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and all other agencies in their statutory processes and to assist with as many training roles as possible to develop the next set of industry professionals.

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