The Senate Committee on Power, on Monday, pledged to assist the National Power Training Institute (NAPTIN) with enhanced budgetary allocation to enable it to confront its challenges.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Gabriel Suswam, gave the pledge when he led other members of the panel on an oversight visit to the headquarters of the agency, in Idu District, Abuja.
Suswam lamented the lack of access road to the agency’s headquarters and said that having seen the challenges firsthand the Committee would ensure that adequate budgetary provision is made to enable the agency tackle the observed difficulties.
He said: “Let me on behalf of the Committee say that we are impressed with the modest effort that you have made here, most especially, coming here is a bit difficult, no access road.
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“You are in the middle of nowhere so to speak, but in spite of that, you are not discouraged.
“As a Committee of the National Assembly, saddled with the responsibility of oversight on the power sector, we have seen the challenges of NAPTIN.
“We have a better appreciation of what the challenges are by being here. This is why oversight functions are important.
“Most of my colleagues here, including myself, even the Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT have not been here.
“When we go back and your budget is before us, we will have more sympathy for your challenges than we have had before.
“I think we will be able to assist you in appropriation when eventually we start the 2021 Appropriation Bill.”
He, however, urged the agency to ensure that its training programme is accessible to all qualified Nigerians irrespective of their geopolitical zones.
“Just to say that while training young Nigerians, you should take into consideration the composition of the country so that you have Nigerians trained throughout the length and breadth of this country,” Suswam said.
The Director-General of NAPTIN, Malam Ahmed Bolaji Nagode, had in his presentation, listed inadequate funding and bad road to the headquarters of the agency as some of its challenges, among others.
According to him, while overhead funding was reduced from about N20 million to N9million for operations and maintenance, capital budget reduced from N2billion to N416million in 2020.
Nagode said: “NAPTIN corporate head office at Idu does not have a good access road.
“This has been affecting the productivity of staff and also training patronage from our customers.”
NAN
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