Capacity building key to achieving 10,000mw by 2019 –Fashola

The minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Monday emphasized that the target of 10,000mw by 2019 will not be realized except skill man-power needs are addressed in the sector, adding that design, building of plant, its operation and maintenance can only be carried out by key skilled manpower.

Fashola stated this while calling on the newly graduating trainees under its Graduate Skills Development Programme (NGSDP), to brace up for the challenge by developing positive attitude that would enable them to be creative in solving the myriad of problems responsible for the lack of access to power for large majority of Nigerians.

“So, the role of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), in the realization of the noble directive of government cannot be over-emphasized,” he said.

Represented by Louis Edozien, the permanent secretary (power), the minister while reacting to the charge to government by the key-note speech as delivered by Omotayo Fahinlede, tagged “Short Term Strategies for Electricity Supply”, he said there will soon be executive actions on issues around renewable energy, the place of coal in Nigeria’s quest for robust energy mix, embedded generation, need for a workable training policy for NAPTIN and indeed the quest for making NAPTIN a citadel of quality learning with its proposed post-graduate degree programmes.

Earlier in his address, Rueben Okeke, the director general of NAPTIN requested the minister to help fast-track plan to incorporate training of lower cadre personnels, similar to the now rested National Power Apprenticeship Scheme (NAPSAS) in the sector, to complement the trained engineers that are primarily focused by the institute.
He also requested for extra budgetary funding from government in a consistent manner that will see in 10 years the mission of transforming our training modules to match trainings in line with global best practice.

He promised that NAPTIN under his watch will key into the government’s change agenda, as it will soon benefit from an intervention loan package of €15 million from donor agencies and nations that will enable it to be transformed into a hub for training of workers in power utilities in the sub-region.

The minister of state for education, Anthony Onwuka, while delivering a good will message, promised the assistance of the National Universities Commission (NUC) in the actualization of the dream to transform NAPTIN to a post-graduate institution, which he said is consistent with the trust of this administration which is aimed at revamping technical education in Nigeria.
He said that in order to give vent to government’s plan for purpose driven, sound, technological oriented education, government intends to put an end to the dichotomy between Higher National Diploma (HND) and Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) graduates.

 

YANGE IKYAA