Paucity of trained personnel stunts aviation growth - former NANTA president

Bankole Bernard, Former President of National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA)

Former President of National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Bankole Bernard has said that lack of attention to training and investing in aviation personnel is gradually squeezing the growth of the sector.

Bernard who spoke at the 25th League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) annual seminar held in Lagos said, “I realized that the Act that governs Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, (NCAT) Zaria was enacted in 1964, whereas all others had been reviewed lately. How come the one that affects industry personnel has been abandoned for decades?

“It shows that we pay very little attention to the workforce in the industry and that explains why we more often export that aspect of the aviation business. We need to go back to the drawing board and make sure that the personnel are well trained”.

Bernard disclosed that today, Nigeria only has 20 accredited training organisations in Nigeria, to serve a population of over 200 million people.

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He noted that there are no enabling laws to attract investors into this critical aspect of the aviation industry. “I think we need to pay more attention to issues that affect human factors in the industry,” he added.

Bernard, who is also the managing director of Finchglow Group reiterated that for there to be a meaningful collaboration, there is the need to have a central data system, stressing that with that, people can rely on information coming from one agency to another.

He lamented that the sector and system have disintegrated systems which they need to integrate, adding that “Until we integrate the system to a point that we all know that the information that we are getting is factual, then we will not move forward”.

He explained that codeshare and interlining among the airlines will only be possible if people have accurate information to rely on.

He decried a situation where the information available is coming from different sources, re-emphasizing that the earlier the country has a central data system the better for the nation, agencies, captains for the industry, and even the journalists that would want to rely on the data for their reports.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.