Capt. Yakubu Okatahi, rector and chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Aviation College (IAC), Ilorin, has pleaded with the federal government to consider the college for a customs duty waiver on the importation of aircraft and spare parts.
According to sources, the Kwara State Government founded the IAC Ilorin in 2011 with the purpose of teaching pilots and other aviation professionals.More than 300 pilots have graduated from it since it was founded, the majority of whom work for domestic and foreign airlines.
The Rector appealed for interventions, specifically a waiver on the importing of aircraft and their spare parts, in an interview with Aviation Correspondents who were in Ilorin for a one-week course, he noted that the college has been training Nigerians and so they deserve some form of interventions to augment what the state government is doing.He noted that currently, facilities within the college need upgrade, with at least, three unserviceable trainer aircraft that would cost about N4.5 million to fix.
“The state government is doing its best, it is proactive and keen on developing the school, salaries are paid as and when due, the state government released money for the purchase of aircraft and parts, fuel, and upgrade of the college, but it will be very good for the federal government to help us, the waiver on spare parts should be extended to us, and they should give us subvention annually because we are training Nigerians,” he said.
Even though the college intends to raise tuition from N12.5 million to over N17 million for a full semester, he revealed that it would soon offer engineering and cabin crew degrees in the new session to boost revenue.”Yes, we need partners,” Okatahi continued.and investors, we need more funding, we source our forex from the third tier market (black market), it’s been very expensive, all expenses here are based on the dollar, therefore, it is reasonable for us to increase the fees.“Each student pays N12.5 million for a full course but we could go higher than N17.5 million. If colleges like the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) that get government subvention from various sources can increase fees to over N17 million, ours may be higher because we don’t get any assistance from the Federal government.“In South Africa, it is about N28 million, excluding feeding and accommodation and in the United States, it is about $40,000.”
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