NASENI, AFIT strengthen ties on AAVDI, made-in-Nigeria helicopter

The Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Agency for Science and Engineering (NASENI), Dr. Bashir Gwandu, has called for stronger collaboration with the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in Kaduna, Kaduna State, for the smooth take-off of the permanent site of the Aeronautics and Air Vehicle Development Institute (AAVDI), an Institute under NASENI.

The institute is located within AFIT Complex in Kaduna.

The NASENI boss made the call when the new Commandant of AFIT, Air Vice Marshal S.L. Rabe paid him a courtesy visit at NASENI headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday, July 19, 2023.

Rabe said his visit to NASENI was to congratulate the EVC on his appointment as well as touch base with him on the collaboration for the establishment of NASENI Institute in Kaduna.

He said it was an honour and he looked forward to strengthening ties with NASENI to develop AADVI and also fast-track the ongoing work on the made-in-Nigeria helicopter.

He promised to work with NASENI and asked that AFIT staff should be part of training for unskilled talents such as welding, etc.

“I am of the opinion that the AFIT staff should be part of the NASENI training to gain knowledge from the training,” Rabe added.

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Speaking, Gwandu said: “Surely, our work with the Air Force and the military establishment are areas that I want to focus on because there are some of our key projects that AFIT is championing and that cooperation is very important to us in particular and to the country.”

He said the main reason for having the helicopter and the AAVDI is for Nigeria to be self-reliant in aviation technology, noting that there will be manufacturing of components for the helicopter and other aircraft that NASENI can produce.

He added: “We can train people to learn to produce the components. Like I said, we have been looking at different components of aircraft in particular and how we can penetrate that industry.

“We produce a lot of titanium in this country, as we know the body of aircraft in particular use composite materials which do not work with aluminum as we all know because of corrosion. One of the key projects I am working on is getting a team to work on Titanium.

“I have companies that I am talking to courtesy of your colleague at NASENI. We will work with what we have to produce some of the parts. We have Institutes like HEDI in Kano that produce hydraulics that is needed in aviation. We are trying to form a team that we can train in different areas of aerospace such as satellites, down to aircraft aviation.

On training on aircraft parts and systems, including Avionics, he said NASENI was interested in developing the areas that were earlier mentioned.

“We are just starting and we have to start from somewhere. We have to do something fast or else we will find ourselves lagging behind. Most of the advanced countries are making money mainly from high-tech that we do. We need to be there and compete with them. That is the thinking,” Gwandu added.

The Star