Santos Aviation sites FAA repair station in Nigeria

Santos Aviation Limited is set to host the first United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licensed repair station locally.

The aircraft service station and interior refurbishing facility is tailored towards home-base support service and technology transfer to Nigerians professionals.

General Manager of the facility already in Lagos, Segun Adesanya, said his agents and employees have professional and technical licences issued by the FAA, to provide services on American-made and American registered aircraft in Nigeria and the West African region.

Adesanya said that the local aviation sector has great potential for growth, which will result in more job opportunities for the youth and local contents to save the country from capital flights.

Adesanya, an aircraft engineer with over four decades of experience in local and international aviation, said Santos is in Nigeria to transfer some ideas and knowledge gathered outside the country to impart the industry as well as train Nigerians to the point of certification.

He said: “The primary reason why we came to Nigeria is to transfer technology and for us to transfer technology, we must be here. When you see those expatriates (pilots and engineers), they are not really helping our economy. I bet you 99.9 per cent of them don’t have Nigerian accounts, and you (employer) make payments to their foreign accounts.

“So, we came over here purposely to transfer ideas. We are not the only ones who do this; the Indians did it, the Iranians did it and the only difference is that the Indian and Iranian governments supported their people more than Nigeria is supporting its own,” Adesanya said.