Ghana’s growing aviation industry will soon be taken over by foreigners if government is unable to address the high cost of training in the sector.
This is according to private sector players in the aviation industry.
According to industry watchers, government should set up a loan facility for individuals who wish to acquire training in the aviation sector.
In an interview with Citi Business News after a press conference, Deputy Managing Director of CTK Flight Academy, Kwaku Antwi Boasiako said government should make training for piloting more accessible for interested persons, by providing them with loans.
“It’s a higher cost training to be a pilot than other training fields and we also need institutions that can offer the students jobs once they finish training as pilots”, he said.
He added, “So what is really important right now is for government to provide persons who want to get training with the initial financing, so it’s just a matter of a loan and not a grant”.
Mr Boasiako was of the view that the training support from government will prevent foreigners from taking over Ghana’s aviation industry.
“Once we do that, we will have a lot more people in the aviation space because as a country we need a lot more people in that space at the moment it’s like the industry is made for foreigners”.
Their demand also comes at a time that government has announced its intentions to partner the private sector to provide training for pilots.
According to the ministry, the training of pilots is critical to addressing the deficit in pilots in the country.
The sector Minister, Cecilia Dapaah, maintained that this will prevent foreign dominance in the country’s aviation space by investing in the training of experts.
Madam Dapaah said the training, which will be done in collaboration with players in the private sector will be key in attaining the targeted growth for Ghana’s aviation industry.
“We want to concentrate on the training of pilots, there is a shortage and training is very expensive, I will listen to you that if you have ways and means to partnering government to make sure we train our teeming youth who are intelligent and talented to be part of this aviation industry”.
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By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana