Legislating local content in the aviation industry

Mark, who was represented, decried the current ‘uncontrolled influx of expatriate’ pilots, aircraft engineers as well as other professional cadres who dominate the sector, taking up jobs that could be easily done by Nigerians. Even as the industry is understaffed and new Nigerian professionals need to be absorbed, its control is outside Nigeria. Presently, the […]

Mark, who was represented, decried the current ‘uncontrolled influx of expatriate’ pilots, aircraft engineers as well as other professional cadres who dominate the sector, taking up jobs that could be easily done by Nigerians. Even as the industry is understaffed and new Nigerian professionals need to be absorbed, its control is outside Nigeria. Presently, the industry is largely run by a mix of non-accredited foreign operators and over 300 registered non-Nigerian practitioners in critical areas. On that score, the infusion of new professionals as represented by the recently qualified Nigerian pilots and engineers is a welcome development.
However, there need to be a comprehensive appraisal of what constitutes local context in any applicable law on the subject in the aviation sector.  Moreover, the local content requirement goes beyond the peripheral act of replacing non-Nigerians in targeted sectors of the economy. For the aviation industry, the situation is even more complex, given its international orientation and the role of certified merit in driving critical manning areas, especially with respect to pilots and flight engineers. This is one reason most indigenous airlines in Nigeria operate aircrafts on the wet-lease option, whereby the aircrafts come with the designated critical flight crew of the leasing firm’s choice. These members of crew may not always be Nigerians. This can only change when Nigerian airline operators purchase and own their aircrafts instead of operating them on lease basis, and enjoy the capacity to define terms of operation.
Indeed the apparent disconnect between the international character of the industry vis-à-vis Nigeria’s and Africa’s technological challenges is accentuated by the fact that only South Africa and Ethiopia on the continent have facilities for the C-check that aircrafts regularly must undergo to be periodically considered airworthy. The C-check is one of the mandatory, advanced, periodic checks on individual equipment and components, which all aircrafts in service must go through every 20-24 months.
A robust context for local content regime in the Nigerian aviation industry would therefore be better defined by a more expansive appreciation of its wider dimensions that embrace the entire gamut of activities in it. Given that the industry has airside and groundside operations, the scope for local content regime is much wider than the concept Senator Mark hinted at; and this could be scaled. Hence any proposed law in this regard must provide for inventiveness and flexibility of entry, and sustainable operations, for Nigerian operators and other stakeholders.  
While the proposed law may reflect the strictures associated with the international standards of the aviation industry, its main value-added for Nigerians is in how far it streamlines profitable local participation in the wider components of the industry, especially the groundside operations. In this respect, the aerotropolis project that the government is implementing offers some promise of transforming the Nigerian aviation industry through making our local airports hubs for regional economic activity.  
The Nigerian aviation industry has the potential to contribute to the nation’s economy more than its present scope.  For a sector that generated N32.6 billion in 2010, N32.6 billion in 2011, N42.7 billion in 2012 and N48 billion in 2013, a sub-optimal level of indigenous participation is a wide gap that must be filled.   This is what the proposed legislation should address.