Captain Yakubu Okatahi, the Rector of International Aviation College, Ilorin, Kwara State is a through bred aviation professional who rose from the ranks to become the Chief Pilot of EAS Airline.
In this interview with Aviation Journalists at the recently concluded League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents, LAAC training programme at the College in Ilorin, Okatahi spoke on the need for the federal government to support the school as a training institution training pilots and other personnel for Nigerian Aviation industry in area of Custom duty waivers on equipment, parts, subventions and grants.
The Rector applauded the state government for her financial support to the school, the resolve of the management to think outside the box and strategise on how to partners with entrepreneurs to invest in the school among others
He outlined other challenges facing the school like high cost of foreign exchange sourced from the second tier market, impact of COVID 19 on the school programmes, and the resolve of the school management to increase the school fees that will paid by new intakes as current fee on ₦12.5 million is no longer sustainable.
Franklin Ihejirika who was there at the interview reports.
Excepts
What are the challenges confronting
the International Aviation College (IAC), Ilorin?
When we came onboard in March 2022, we had a lot of challenges, but we didn’t allow the challenges to weigh us down. Immediately, we decided that we would hold the bull by the horn and confront the challenges. Challenges are meant to be solved and we have been trying our best possible to solve them.
The first challenge that we had was that the students were not flying because they were many for the number of the instructors that we had. So, we decided that some should stay at home, while the others remain on campus and we made some
arrangements for those who remained in the school; so, they started flying.
Initially, some of the parents thought IAC was done and out, but we thank God
that we are able to return to our former status.
In the last four months, we have been able to graduate 25 students; 15 of them were Commercial Pilot License (CPL) Instrument Rating and multi-engine, 10 of them were Private Pilot Licence (PPL) and the PPL, they want to continue to the CPL level. So, those are the challenges that we had initially and what I just said now was what we have been able to do to overcome the challenges.
Some of the students have been on
campus for more than the 18 months required for them to graduate as pilots,
what are you doing to address this major challenge?
Some of the students we have now, I call them remnants. This is so because we met them in the system and we are just mopping them here and there till we graduate them.
We expect that as soon as we are able to finish with them, we are going to have
new students. This training should not be more than 18 to 21 months, but as
things are, some students are coming in trickles and we have to fix them in
their appropriate classes. That is why it is getting so long for them to
finish, but I promise you that when we get the new set of students, there will
not be any reason for them to stay here for more than the required 18 to 21
months. However, we are going to introduce new fees for the new intakes.
However, if the students stay longer than necessary, we will not ask for additional fees.
As a matter of fact now, we are not asking for more money because we have
agreed with the parents the actual amount of money to be paid for the course, but unfortunately, we delayed and because of that we will not increase the fees. But, when we take new students, we will do that.
As it is, we are actually running at a loss. When we started the course, a dollar was about N200, but now, it has skyrocketed to about N800 to a dollar. However, we are still charging them based on the old fee. Also then, aviation fuel was about N300 per litre, but now, it is about N900 to a litre. Everything has gone up.
Everything we have to import, including maintenance cost have gone up. If we
have new students, it’s going to be new fees and we will not change it unless
they finish the course.
How many instructors do you have in
the school?
As at now, we have six qualified instructors and we are going to continue to train our
instructors so that they will be ahead of the programme. Recall that this is a
training institution. Two of our instructors are already on training. One of them has gone to South Africa and returned, while the second one would be going very soon. The remaining four instructors, we have paid their fees at the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria for upgrade training and they would come back after the training. Of course, they will go in batches.
How has government funding affected
your performance?
We want to thank the State Government led by Mr. Abdulraham Abdulrazaq, he has been doing a lot for us, he has always paid our subvention and salaries as at when due.
One of the slogans of this government is that it doesn’t play with civil
servant salaries. Secondly, we requested for money from the State Government
and it granted it to us by October, 2022 and we have used that money to buy
spare parts for the aircraft. Some of the parts are here; we also bought fuel,
repair the fuel dump and we used the remaining money to update some of our
facilities in the school. So, the government has been doing a lot for us.
How much of trainee aircraft and
instructors does the college need to optimally train the students?
Our orogramme for the flying instructors and the students is that we fly from 8a.m to 6p.m. So, we have enough aircraft and enough instructors for the students that we have at the moment for our programme. This is a training institution, you will expect that there would be some crashes, incidents and we need to get money to fix those aircraft. There are some of our equipment that have had accidents and they are beyond repairs. There are those that we can repair. You can imagine one of the aircraft, we need about N150 million to fix it. So, if we have two of those aircraft, you are talking about N300 million to return them to use.
So, it would be selfish of us to ask the government to give us N300 million to fix our aircraft, whereas, there are 11 tertiary institutions that the government has to take care of. So, we are now thinking outside the box. We know we need to generate money to help ourselves not to be totally dependent on government. We are trying to get more course in. As at now, we are doing flying and dispatch courses. We want to introduce cabin crew and engineering training. Engineering training is a lot of money. So, we are taking everything one after the other and we are also appealing to the government to assist us.
Is there any way the management of the collage can be more innovative to partner with private sectors to grow the school?
Like I said earlier, we are thinking outside the box. We try to get some entrepreneurs who are interested in the school to come in and put in their money. Politically, this school was started by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in the state, then, there was a lot of money in the system then, but as you all know, as time goes by, there was a dwindling in the resources of the Federal Government, which trickled down to the State Governments. The funds they were
getting then, they no longer get it now. But, this government didn’t look at
the challenges. The government has always showed very keen interest. As a
matter of fact, the present commissioner of Tertiary Institutions is very proactive. He moved in quickly when we came onboard to ensure that we get the
resources we needed to keep the college alive.
Before we came onboard, this State Government had given money to the previous management to acquire two engines; they were able to buy one and the remaining money was used to settle their outstanding debts. So, this government has been of help to
us and we can’t deny the fact.
Do you think a State Government can
effectively fund an aviation college?
This depends on how much money that a State Government has; I think a State Government can fund aviation college. Like I said earlier on, a training institution for aviation is like a taproot, which goes far into the ground, gets all the nutrients and feed the branches and others.
I think initially, when they started this college, they were doing very well. There was money, but this money trickled down and unfortunately, they were not able to cope. That is why they had some of their students that did not graduate at the right time.
How has the paucity of foreign
exchange affected your operations?
We are not getting our foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). We are getting our forex from the seond tier market. Something that is just a hundred dollar will cost you N800,000. So, it has been very expensive. Unfortunately, whatever money we have, we give it to them, they change it for us. Sometimes, the money that is given to us from the second tier market may not be enough to do what we need to do. We need to do something to make sure that we get enough for what we need.
What led to the initially challenges
that made students stay longer than necessary?
I was not here then, but I think what led to it was the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, which extended their stay and during Covid-19, you still had some staff in the school that we still have to pay. I think that led to the extension of their stay in the school.
You said the school fees for students
would be reviewed when you have new intakes, how much do you think would be
most appropriate for you?
Now, our school fees is about N12.5 million for piloting and that is exactly what Zaria is charging. I learnt that Zaria has increased to about N17.5 million. We will not stop at N17 million because it is not adequate for us. We will go higher than that, but we have not determined how much our new fees would be.
Zaria gets subventions and grants from the Federal Government. Zaria also shared from the Bilateral
Air Service Agreements (BASAs) and also share from the Ticket/Cargo Sales
Charge collected by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority. Ilorin doesn’t get
anything from the Federal Government. Definitely, we will go higher than N17.5
million. In South Africa, the training school charges about N28 million. This is exclusive of the airfares, accommodation and feeding for the duration of the course. In America, it is about $40,000 and I have not converted that of the United Kingdom, but we are charging N12.5 million, which is nothing as everything we do in aviation is based on dollars; the equipment we are using is in dollars, spare parts are in dollars and even some of the instructors that are going to be foreign, they are going to ask for dollars. So, it is reasonable for us to increase our tuition fees.
We are begging the Federal Government to assist us. The government should know that we are training Nigerians that are going to work for the Nigerian Government and Nigerian airlines. I think it is just reasonable for the Federal Government to give us some allocations yearly. Secondly, the Federal Government is giving
some amount of money to private airlines to cushion the effect of Covid-19,
inflation and others, but we are not getting any of these.
Thirdly, we pay customs duties on our imported parts and aircraft, I think the Federal Government should look into that and give us some reliefs. We should be
excepted from Customs duties and also give us subventions or grants yearly. We are training Nigerians, we are Nigerians and Kwara State is part of Nigeria. They should make us feel that we belong to Nigeria.
