The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said that everything is set for International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to commission its (FAAN’s) Training Centre which has been designated as Global Training Centre of Airports Council International (ACI).
Spokesman for FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu who disclosed this in an interview in Lagos said “all the facilities are up to date.
She said the training facility located at the Lagos Airport would be commissioned this Friday, December 7 adding that “instructors will be coming from all over the world and they are ICAO trained instructors.”
“For ICAO to designate us as a training centre, you will know that everything that we needed to put in place have been put in place,” she said.
She said the commissioning and designation of the facility as ICAO/ACI Global Training Centre would further enhance training of technical personnel for the industry.
“Sometime last year, during the ACI meeting in Mauritius, FAAN training school was designated as an ICAO training centre. By this Friday, ICAO will be coming to Nigeria for the commissioning of the facility.
“One of the advantages of the training centre is that it will make it easier for member countries to train their personnel in Nigeria. It is also cheaper for them to come to Nigeria to be trained, rather than going to United Kingdom, United States and other countries around the world.
“Another advantage is that there will be more opportunities for those in the region to get trained. You know when cost is not really a factor more people will be factored into training. There is also accessibility for trainees and the weather condition is favourable in Nigeria, while the learning facilities are fantastic and new,” said Yakubu.
She also said that before the facility was approved, inspectors from ICAO visited the facility regularly and discovered some open items.
However, she said FAAN had taken care of the observations before the global aviation agency gave the final approval.
On the ongoing certification of some international airports by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Yakubu assured that some of them would be certified by 2019.
She recalled that the international wings of Lagos and Abuja were certified in 2017 by the regulatory authority, stressing that officials from ICAO were also assisting FAAN in the certification exercise.
“You know there are certain conditions that must be met before an airport is certified and before MMA and Abuja airports were certified last year, we had to fulfill all the conditions and before any other airport would be certified, same conditions too have to be met.
“Recently, a team from ICAO came around during the Airport Excellence (APEX) training, which was held in Nigeria. The team went to Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu airports. I can assure you that next year, one or more airports will also be certified after we have fulfilled all the conditions,” she said.
