Power Institute trains over 1000 personnel across African power utilities

The director-general (DG), National Power Training Institute (NAPTIN), Mr Ahmed Nagode, says the institute has trained over 1000 personnel across African power utilities.

Nagode said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.

“We have trained staff of electricity companies of Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, and we also have new contracts to train staff of these utilities.

“Within the West African Sub Region, we have trained staff of Volta River Authority (VRA) Ghana, and we have a contract to train staff of Liberia and my instructors will soon be going there.

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“These are projects that are under the African Network of Centers of Excellence in Electricity (ANCEE),” he said.

Nagode also said that NAPTIN had contracts that were still ongoing, while those they had trained, like Mozambique, were coming back, aside from ANCEE projects to seek more training.

He said that the institute had also carried out training for staff of Abuja, Ibadan, and Eko Electricity Distribution Companies.

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According to him, NAPTIN is building the human capacity that was required in order to operate and maintain infrastructure in the power sector.

“There is the need to build a vibrant, efficient and effective workforce in order to guarantee that we have this power.

“I want to say that the government is doing all that is possible to make sure that NAPTIN is positioned to deliver on this.

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”NAPTIN is recognised under the Electricity Act and given clear-cut mandates of what to do, and the government have supported the institute with state-of-the-art equipment and training infrastructure.

”We have fantastic and state-of-the-art equipment, we have lecturers, instructors who have been trained both in Nigeria and internationally, and we have a world-class curriculum in order to carry out all these training,” he said.

The DG also said that NAPTIN was aligning strategically to the agenda on economic growth and job creation of  President Bola Tinubu.

“We need to focus on skills instead of just degree certificates, and what we have been doing is that we have been training young Nigerians in the area of electrical installation, meter installation and solar,” he said. (NAN)