President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) to speed up the certification of helicopters produced in the country.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NASENI, Prof. Mohammed Haruna, made this known during a visit to the NCAA headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.
He stated that President Buhari had given NASENI and other agencies involved in the Nigeria helicopter project, including the Federal Ministry of Aviation, to expedite actions on the certification.
He reiterated the commitment of the Buhari administration to the launch the first Made in Nigeria non-commercial helicopter currently being manufactured at NASENI.
According to Haruna, the president plans to launch the NASENI-manufactured helicopter in the last quarter of the year 2021.
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Haruna said the components required to make the wholly Nigerian-made helicopter had been produced by NASENI and its partners and that the unavailable parts had been imported.
He said, “As far back as 2016, following President Buhari’s directive, NASENI successfully designed and manufactured locally the first jet-engine for aircraft, which was launched with funfair at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.”
Haruna said a team from NCAA and officials of NASENI had visited the factory of the technical partner, Dynali Helicopter Company, Belgium from July 28 to August 3, 2019.
In his response, the Director General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, acknowledged the efforts of his predecessor in supporting NASENI to actualise the project so far, especially following the presidential directive.
He said within the next two weeks, NCAA would revert to NASENI after looking into areas of challenges in the request for certification with approval to be given by NCAA.
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