Nigeria and India explore wider aviation cooperation and training
A meeting between Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo and India’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhishek Singh, has opened discussions on deeper cooperation in aviation. India said it saw at least six or seven potential areas of collaboration, while Nigeria prioritised training, skills development and knowledge transfer.
Nigeria and India are exploring expanded cooperation in aviation following a meeting between Aviation and Aerospace Development Minister Festus Keyamo and India’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhishek Singh. Singh paid a courtesy visit to Keyamo at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday. According to a statement by the minister’s media adviser, Tunde Moshood, the envoy said Nigeria’s airports were performing well and that both countries had significant potential to work together.
The high commissioner identified at least six or seven possible areas of collaboration. He also invited Keyamo to visit India and said India’s civil aviation minister would like to visit Nigeria. Singh said India was prepared to expand its capacity-building programme in Nigeria.
More than 250 Nigerians currently benefit from the programme each year, according to the statement. Keyamo welcomed the proposals and said India’s experience in aviation, particularly in developing professional capacity, offered useful lessons for Nigeria. He linked the proposed cooperation to the government’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the aviation and aerospace sector.
The minister said Nigeria wanted bilateral ties to strengthen aviation infrastructure and provide Nigerian professionals with the expertise needed to compete internationally. He identified training, capacity building and the transfer of knowledge as priorities. Keyamo said a partnership with India should focus on Nigerian engineers, pilots, air traffic controllers and other aviation specialists.
The aim, he said, was to equip them with the skills and exposure needed to support the sector’s development. The ministry has directed that a technical team be established to work out the details of the proposed partnership. The supplied statement did not give a timetable for the team’s work or specify the other areas of cooperation under consideration.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.