Captain Abdulsallami Mohammed is the Rector and CEO of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) in Zaria, Kaduna state. He spoke on his stewardship of the college in the last 3 years. Excerpt by SULEIMAN IDRIS.
What changes have you brought to NCAT in the last 3 years?
When I was appointed in January 2017, the immediate mandates were to restore the status of the college, to attain the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Regional Training Centre of Excellence (RTCE) status, to attain the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) for our diploma programme, and also, to complete ongoing projects that I met on ground. I am pleased to report that we have met majority of these mandates. As you are aware, we achieved the RTCE status back in 2017. When we came, the college had developed two standard packages. One of the requirements by ICAO to be considered for RTCE is the development of a minimum three standard packages.
So, when I came on ground, my immediate interest was to conclude the Standard Training Packages (STPs) that were going on and I am proud to announce to you now that as at today, the college has developed eight standard training packages. This has surpassed most of our training institutions that are under the ICAO Plus. I met a lot of projects that were ongoing, we have successfully completed most of them and those that are still ongoing, we hope to complete them by 2020. In terms of staff welfare,I recognize the need that for you to get the best out of your staff, you have to get the best out of them. I met on ground a situation whereby the college did not have on ground an approved scheme condition of service.
This was something I took up personally and I am glad to tell you that for the first time in the annals of the college, it now has approved scheme condition of service in the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation. We also encourage and promote capacity building among the staff by sending them on training and at every opportunity that we have, when they are conducting training at the college, we also put in members of our staff in such programmes for them to benefit from these training.
As you are aware, I have over 40 years in aviation industry and my last position was as a staff of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which gave me the regulatory perspective of aviation. With this pedigree, I have been able to look at the college critically and be able to reposition the college. One of the things I emphasised then was prudence, considering that we have limited funds. We have been able to instill some sorts of financial discipline in the college.
What are the specific programmes you plan to put in place?
My plan is to double our activities in the college by introducing new courses, which is to enhance our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). We are hoping to establish a course that will train people on the use of drones. As you are aware, during the one of the symposiums on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) that was held in Abuja in 2017, the college was mandated to come up with a training programme for RPAS, popularly known as drones. So, the college is taking up this mandate. So far, we have trained our personnel that will acquire this training. We have acquired the drones that will be used for this training. We are still waiting for the necessary regulatory framework that will guide us on this training. We have plans to carry the college forward. As you are aware aviation is a very technical and evolving industry.
There are always new technologies coming up, in keeping up with this advancement, the college is always procuring new equipment so that our engineers and pilots, ATC and others, by the time they come out, they are trained in the use of these facilities. As you are aware, the NCAT bill for the amendment of the Act that set up the college is presently before the National Assembly, we have been waiting for this for some time now. With the passage of this bill, the college will be able to access the Tertiary Education Trust (TET) fund, which in turn will now help us address some of our infrastructure and staff training needs. We seek support of the media in this.
What is the number of serviceable aircraft at NCAT?
As at Monday this week, (1stweek of December 2019), we had 10 serviceable aircraft in the fleet of NCAT. The daily serviceability fluctuates because as the aircraft are utilised on a daily basis, they go in for maintenance. They have 50 hours check and 100 hours check. So, when the hours are exhausted, they are pulled into the hangar and the maintenance carried out before they are pulled out. As it is, we have 10 aircraft that are fully serviceable, which is a good improvement on what we used to have.
How have you gone with the plan to acquire 20 Diamond aircraft to uplift your operations?
The Diamond Aircraft, the supply is for 20 aircraft. That was DA42, which has two engines and 15 DA40, which is single engine aircraft. Because of budgetary constraint, you cannot order for the entire aircraft at once. So, we ordered for the aircraft in batches. When I assumed duty in 2017, the college took delivery of only one DA42 AIRCRAFT. This was because when the initial orders were placed, the aircraft were manufactured, but due to the failure of the college then to make payment, the manufacturer decided to sell.
So, they couldn’t get the aircraft any longer. So, we said we were not going to place any other until we have money. So, last year, I placed orders for six DA40 aircraft, we made all the payments that is required to guarantee the aircraft. We are going to perform factory acceptance check on these aircraft in the third week of January 2020 and thereafter, by two weeks after that, sometime in mid-February 2020 or so, the six aircraft would be delivered to Zaria. This will greatly enhance our training capacity. With the delivery of these aircraft, we intend to place order for the batch of another aircraft. So, we will be ordering them in batches until we take delivery of the 20 aircraft.
What about staff training?
We have three types of training at NCAT. The training that we provide at the college; when we are conducting training, we involve our staff. When we identify training needs in certain departments or units like record keeping, computer appreciation, these are courses we conduct at the college, rather than sending them to conduct it outside the college. We have training, which we send our staff to do either in Kaduna or Abuja. Then, we have foreign training,which involved technical ones that are licenses. These training are required of them to maintain their currency of their licenses. In 2018 alone within the college, we trained 104 staff and in 2019, we trained 181 of our staff within the college.
In addition to that, we have sent over 80 people in batches to public services institutes in Abuja annually for training and these training cut across the ranks. That is from security men, cleaners up to the chief inspector. We didn’t differentiate. We recognise the need for these kinds of training for being civil servants for civil service rules and procedures by the public service institute, which is ongoing and we carry on annually. I keep trying to explain to people to stop looking at training as their welfare.
Training is not a welfare, but for capacity building. Foreign training is for licensed staff like pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, aircraft maintenance engineers and instructors. All these ones are NCAA requirements for recurrent training. In addition, we also send the staff to do attachment on the industry. For ATC, they go to the facilities of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA). For the pilots, ground instructors, we send them to the airlines and for the engineers also go to the airlines and the maintenance organizations. So, all these are parts of the local trainings.
