Why Nigeria Cannot Manufacture Aircraft in Next Decade

An aviation expert has summed that Nigeria cannot design and manufacture commercial aircraft capable of conveying one hundred passengers and above in the next decade as a result of the absence of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities.

Presenting a paper titled “the imperative of Building a sustainable Aircraft maintenance Hangar in Nigeria” Dr. Titus Kehinde Olaniyi, a special resource person at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, declared that it will not be feasible to achieve that feat of aircraft designing and manufacturing in the country in the next ten years but declared that the country’s aviation must begin to sustainably operate, maintain and assemble in the progressive order.

According to Olaniyi, the MRO facility in Uyo was a viable step in the right direction to achieve such feat adding that once it was completed, the facility will become a national hangar that will accommodate two B747 – 400 or six B737 in a closed air conditioned space.

This, he said, will require the services of technically capable human resources that will provide high quality maintenance services needed stressing that the MRO in Uyo should consider collaboration first with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and later with third party suppliers in order to strategically upgrade the facility to an assembly plant and later collaborate with manufacturers.

Olaniyi called for the imitation of planning and policy frame work inclusive of its implementation strategies that would encourage the establishment of MRO for protecting the Nigerian aviation industry and its workforces.

He noted that the current Nigeria aviation policy required a paradigm  shift adding that its current format opened doors uncontrollably to foreign operators at the expense of the indigenous market.

According to Olaniyi, this is a result of the inadequate negotiation skills, suspicious or gross malicious of people conducting Bilateral Agreement on behalf of Nigeria.