Aviation Academy Seeks Grants, Customs’ Duty Waiver On Spare Parts

The International Aviation College (IAC), Ilorin, Kwara state, has called on the federal government to grant the institution Customs duty waivers on aircraft and its spare parts for the training of pilots.

This is just as the college also wants the federal government to give them financial support in terms of subventions and grants as its does the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria.

The acting rector of IAC, Ilorin, Captain Yakubu Okotahi, made the call in an interview with the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents, LAAC in Ilorin.

According to him, the goal of the college including that run by the Federal Government in Zaria is to train Nigerian pilots for the industry and to effectively do this, there must be palliatives to cushion the effects of the present economic realities to avoid dearth of manpower in the future.

“We pay Customs duty on our imported parts and aircraft and I think the Federal Government should look into that and give us some relieve, it should allow not to pay Customs duty , it should gives grant or subvention every year,” he said.

Captain Okotahi disclosed that, the college would soon increase its tuition fees from the current N12.5 million to an amount yet to be determined by the management but it would be above N17.5 million as charged currently by the aviation college in Zaria.

“It is pretty expensive, we are charging N12.5m now and everything is based on dollar, the aircraft is in dollar, and spare parts we are buying is dollar, some of the instructors that are going to be foreign, they are going to ask for dollar, so it is just reasonable for us to increase the fees,” Okotahi stressed.

The college said, it has concluded plans to introduce more courses to the college, namely engineering and cabin crew services.