The federal government has announced the establishment of a Pan-African university, known as the African Aviation Aerospace University.
Announcing the development in Abuja yesterday, the minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika said the university is purely an aviation specialised school, which is part of the aviation road map of the current administration.
The minister said the university, will be affiliated with the Nile university in Abuja and will kick off with two courses for both online and physical class students.
He said; “We think that it is high time that the country goes into huge research and development in the areas of aerospace and aviation.
“We have a need to establish a university dedicated to that and it has taken a very long time. Since 2016, we have been on it because it is a rigorous exercise. We needed to go through all of the requirements by National Universities Commission(NUC) and they have been very cooperative and supportive and guided us through the process. They provided support, so here we are today with the university about to start.
“So, the name of the university will be the African Aviation and Aerospace University. We named it Africa because the intent is for it to be a Pan-african university that will support entirely and this is so because in our contacts and in our preparation to have this university come up, we did indeed contact those in the country and outside, so many universities that are aerospace and aviation related and also ICAO, AFCAC and many others and all these calibrated into what we have and the focus of the university as a university for aviation and aerospace.
“The component of Africa is to make it Pan-African and it is not limited in terms of experience to Africa. Nigeria will be the focus and centre and Africa will be the catchment areas while other foreign nations are welcome too.
“The university has been given a location very close to the airport area by the government and it will be established there. This university is supposed to be a hybrid university, work on campus as well as online university. We have the provisional approval by the NUC to continue and we will be partnering with NILE university in Abuja. We have an MoU which will be signed hopefully by Monday for official partnership but we have discussed and agreed and it is just the formality for the signing.
“The lectures will be done at the temporary headquarters at AIB building at the airport and some of the lectures will also be done at NILE university.
“So, the first year which is this year, we will be doing BSc Aviation Business and the second will be Bsc Meteorology.
The second year which is 2023, we will be doing Masters in Air transport management, this is all part of what we discussed with the NUC and we have gotten approval for that.
“We will soon unveil the website which is www.aaau.edu.ng however, this is going to be available soon because we need to meet other requirements to activate the website but it will be soon, hopefully within a week the website will be activated. It will be open for registration on the 26th of September all the way to 18th of November.
“This university, we will eventually have it privatised for more efficiency and more focus. It is also something that is grossly absent in the aviation eco-system of Nigeria.”
