As part of efforts to empower youths with relevant vocations and skills acquisition to make them self-reliant and employable in the highly competitive labour market, Ogun State Government has equipped 20 youths with required skills for the installation and management of micro power generation from solar energy.
The youths, who are students from tertiary institutions and secondary schools as well as graduates, were drawn from some local government areas as part of the State Government’s capacity enhancement scheme centred on making the youths self-independent and employable.
BusinessDay reports that the micro-power generation system training was organised by Ogun State Government in partnership with ASTEVEN Renewable Energy Institute with focuses on solar energy installation and maintenance, solar panels couplings and construction of inverters for domestic and industrial uses.
Speaking at graduation and presentation of certificates to the trainees at the ASTEVEN Renewable Energy Institute, Aseese, Olaniji Aisida, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Energy, said the programme was part of the capacity enhancement efforts of Dapo Abiodun-led Administration meant to equip youths with required skills for vocational and entrepreneurial growth and development.
Aisida noted that the technological training was undertaken to explore alternative ways against epileptic power supply in an eco-friendly manner in order to create business -friendly atmosphere that would allow for more corporate and private investments to thrive in the State.
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Dimeji Bello, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Finance, said that the present Administration places a high premium on sustainable and effective infrastructural development with a special reference to power generation and supply as backbone of any economic growth and development.
“This is a very laudable collaboration that will further provide an opportunity to our people on solar power management and its attendant usefulness. The Ogun State Government will not relent in its determination at providing the required business skills for the people to be self-reliant and better productive’’, he said.
But, Kabiru Shagaya, Managing Director of ASTEVEN Group, said that the ASTEVEN Renewable Energy Academy is foremost indigenous company involved in the solar power installation and management, saying the decision to partner Ogun State Government is to leverage its tertiary education status and developmental feats based on the innumerable achievements recorded by Governor Dapo Abiodun’s Administration.
He said, “When we were looking for where to situate our Institute, there was no better option than Ogun State because largely due to its fast growing economy and status of owning more higher technological institutions than any other States, which signifies the size of its productive labour force and this has been exemplified in our series of engagement, confirming the State as an indeed investors destination of choice.”
Earlier two of the participants, a 14-year-old boy, Emmanuel Gods-power and Adeboye Esther, a female teacher, both declared that the training was a great opportunity for income generation, saying it had enhanced their capacities on solar energy, its importance and other alternative means of generating power such as building up inverters and many others.
The trainees appreciated partners and Ogun State Government for the privilege, but appealing to the Government for financial and logistic empowerment to practice the technological skills and ply the learned trade.
