Capt. Okatahi Yakubu, the Ag. Rector of the International Aviation College (IAC), Ilorin, in this interview with OLUSEGUN KOIKI, speaks on the challenges confronting the college; the foreign exchange debacle and the need for subvention from the Federal Government to aid development in the college. Excerpts:

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 of them 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 gone 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 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 fee for the new intakes.

However, if the students stay longer than necessary, we will not ask for additional fee.

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 costs 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 has the government funding affected your performance?

We want to thank the Kwara 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 programme 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 it 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 courses 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 Federal Government to assist us.

Is there any way the management of the college 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, but as you know, as time went 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 them 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 any State Government in Nigeria can effectively fund 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, 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.

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 second tier market.

Something that is just $1,000 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.

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 fee is about N12.5 million for piloting and that was exactly what the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria is charging.

I learnt that Zaria has increased to about N17.5 million. We will not stop at N17.5 million because it is not adequate for us.

We will go higher than that, but we have not determined how much our new fee would be.

Zaria (NCAT) gets subventions and grants from the Federal Government. Zaria also shares from the Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) and also shares from the Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) collected by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on behalf of other aviation agencies.

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 spare parts and aircraft; I think the Federal Government should look into that and give us some reliefs.

We should be exempted 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.