Date: 2016-09-16

The Kwara State government has vowed to sustain the status of the International Aviation College, Ilorin, Kwara state, the best in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Chairman, Board of Directors of the college, Captain Edward Boyo said the college has remained the first in sub -Saharan Africa region established to meet the future challenges of producing efficient and competent pilots for aircraft and helicopters, comparable with their counterparts in any part of the world.

According to him, the college has increased its fleet of aircrafts from two to five in order to meet up the training of its students for effective and optimum results.

Boyo made this known in Ilorin recently during the official commissioning of the mini-aviation fuel dump built by the management of the college to meet the current challenge of paucity of aviation fuel in the aviation industry. The fuel dump was commissioned by the Kwara state Speaker, Hon. Ali Ahmad in the College .

According to him, "if you look around within the 360 degree you will see the expanse of the aviation college. This is the property of the people of Kwara state. "It was a bare land before, this college was established from the wisdom and leadership of the Senate President, Dr. Olubukola Saraki who was the former Governor of Kwara state who initiated the idea .

"From point of establishment we had two aircraft but if you look round now you will see signs of progress. You will see hanger and inside the hanger you will see some assets which have continued to grow."

Boyo explained that "the availability of the newly commissioned fuel dump in the college makes the training more effective for our students because when you train a student and there is time breakage you have to take him back to the beginning again and we will be able to turnout more students in shorter time." He added that in addition to the fuel dump, the college has built another hangar for helicopters

"It is a project we have embarked on in partnership with the Nigeria Navy, their decision to work with us is a sign of confidence in the IAC. These helicopters and additional ones will be put inside the hanger.

"This will be the first school in sub-Saharan Africa that has capacity to produce pilots in aircraft and helicopters. Boyo, who is also the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Overland Airways however noted that the hanger direction has no financial impact on the resources of Kwara, saying " it is fully funded by a joint venture agreement with the Nigeria Navy and College. Upon completion it will be co-owned by the Navy and the IAC."

The chairman also noted that the college is building a tremendous relationship with the Nigerian Air Force as it has graduated several pilots for them and the civil community. The Speaker, Kwara state House of Assembly, Dr. Ali Ahmad while commissioning the project stressed that the huge development in the college is marked by internal effort that was attained by the state government.

"These days you have people telling the politicians to go and deliver, this college is a testimony of action that is even bigger than words. Unless you come here you don't know what is happening.

"My single comment is that I will urge Nigerians and governments at all levels that hope to train their wards in any field of aviation to stop sending students outside but come to the college," Ahmad said

The speaker noted that those who established this college few years ago have the foresight that one day the economy will shrink and we will no longer have the luxury whether to go to Malaysia or IAC Ilorin.

He said: " I'm urging various state governments that have withdrawn their students abroad because of dwindling economy to bring them here in IAC.

"It is a first-class institution in the Africa sub-region with versatile training in almost all field of aviation. I wish Nigerians and Kwarans will wake up to the benefit of the college".

Earlier, the Rector of the College, Capt. Abdulmumini Abdulkarim explained that the genesis of the project, saying that the scarcity of Jet A1 (aviation fuel) recently in the country trigger the concept of building the mini-fuel dump in the college.

He said: "for one month we weren’t able to fly and our single supplier here Ilorin that Lubcon had some challenges and the raining season which enable our students to go back to classroom if not we would have lost two months.

"The board in its wisdom approves the project for us to go now with the fuel dump. We went through all the process regulatory based on international standard and civil aviation guides.

"We discussed with the aviation fuel handler experts in Lagos and it took us six weeks to get here. The total cost approved by the board to put the project is about N5.7million."