Operator Urges Government to Focus on Aviation Development

The Managing Director/CEO of Toucan Aviation Support Services, Achuzie Ezenagu has called on the federal government to focus on the development of aviation in Nigeria as catalyst to the nation’s economic development.

Ezenagu who made this call at the Nigerian Business Aviation Conference, which ended in Lagos at the weekend, said government could work with stakeholders to grow the sector.

He also called for establishment of Maintenance, Overhaul and Repair (MRO) facility in Nigeria, noting that it would safe the country huge financial resources, help to train and employ indigenous aircraft engineers, make aircraft checks cost effective for Nigerian airlines and reinforce Nigeria as a hub in West Africa.

However, Ezenagu observed that establishing an MRO in the country would face challenges, noting that it would be costly because Nigeria does not have the necessary infrastructure to facilitate it, adding that it needs the cooperation of government and industry stakeholders to make its establishment possible.

Speaking in the same vein at the conference, the former Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren said Nigeria is overripe to have such facility and noted that if 40 per cent of the funds spent on the re-modelling of airport facilities in the last few years were deployed by government to establish the facility it would have been invaluable for the development of aviation in the country.

Demuren noted that Nigeria losses huge resources maintaining its aircraft overseas ad besides the economic loss, Nigerian trained aircraft engineers cannot secure jobs locally and for Nigeria to become the West African hub, it must have the MRO facility.

The Nigerian Business Aviation Conference, which is held annually, is about the development of business aviation, which includes private charter services, cargo operations and others and how they help as catalyst to the nation’s economic development.

Ezenagu who was a panelist at the conference said Nigeria needs to focus on aviation development because it is the fulcrum of the nation’s development.

“We should make the airport more accessible and make them more available. Government can encourage stakeholders to grow the sector by providing incentives. Government should also find a way to bring all the data from different sectors of the economy together because every sector works hand in hand with another.

“MRO is costly to set up in Nigeria because of the heavy levies from government, but this can be done. In our own company we operate Embraer aircraft and we have standby engineers for line maintenance for the planes. We don’t have the facilities to get the checks done here but government can partner with the private sector to establish a major MRO in the country,” Ezenagu said.

In the opening speech on the second day of the conference, the Managing Director of EAN Aviation, the organiser of the conference, Segun Demuren Jr, said the business aviation sub-sector of the industry has created about 5000 jobs in the last five years, adding that unlike commercial aviation, business aviation or charter services operate into all the airports in the country and airstrips, adding that in the 1980s Nigeria had only 15 privately owned aircraft, 30 in the 1990s and by 2015 Nigeria has about 140 of such aircraft.