N5bn dormant NCAT Boeing Simulator to gulp fresh N150m

After being dormant for over four years, the Boeing 737-NG full flight simulator acquired in 2020 is expected to gulp fresh N90m for its retention in the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT).

The amount is part of the 2024 budget of the college, a parastatal under the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development.

Daily Trust reports that the simulator has not been deployed since it was acquired even as the college awaits its certification.

For that purpose, another N60m was allocated in the 2024 budget of the agency.

The federal government had acquired the equipment to boost internally generated revenue (IGR) of the college and reduce foreign exchange and capital flight out of Nigeria.

A former rector of the College, Capt. Alkali Modibbo, told journalists in January 2022 that the equipment would be deployed in April that year alongside the automatic fire fighting training simulator which has also not been deployed.

“Also, we are working on the B737 equipment certification. It is taking us longer than we intended, but we will try all our best to ensure that by March this year or April, we will have the B737 simulator equipment and put it to use.  You need to have the international certification before the NCAA will now give you its own certification.

“For example, you must have the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or EASA certification and the NCAA, based on one of those certifications, will now issue you its own certificate.”

Our correspondent learnt that the payment for simulator retention listed as ongoing project in the agency’s 2024 budget is to recertify it following its expiration even though it has not been put to use.

Speaking in August last year, the former rector, who was sacked recently said, “So, the federal government wanted to retain the foreign exchange in the country, which is a very good thought and decision. So, the simulator was purchased and brought to Nigeria.

“The only place you can put a simulator is an institution and NCAT is the only federal government-owned school and this simulator was purchased by the federal government.

“If the government puts it in Lagos, there is no flying school in Lagos that is owned by the federal government. The containers containing all the platforms for the aircraft arrived during the COVID-19 pandemic and despite that, they were able to assemble the simulator aircraft. By the time they finished fixing the simulator, the certification that the simulator came with from America, had expired. It expired in April and they finished assembling it in May.”

He however added that the simulator “is about to be put into use, hopefully before the end of this year.”

“It is not underutilised, but it has not been put to use yet,” he added. But as of press time, the simulator is still lying fallow at the college.