FG receives €170 million grant to build power transmission network

The Federal Government, disclosed weekend, that it received a grant of €170 million from the Agence Francaise Development, AFD, to build power transmission network in the Federal Capital territory, FCT, and its neighbouring Nasarawa State. The French agency also made a donation to the tune of $200million towards the expansion of electricity transmission grid in Lagos State.

Naira noteThe Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali, disclosed this in Abuja, during the inauguration of the Steering Committee on feasibility study on enhancing vocational training delivery for the power sector in Nigeria.

The Steering Committee is comprised of officials from Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC; Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE; Ministry of Finance; National Planning Commission; NAPTIN; as well as the generation and distribution companies. Igali, who also doubles as the Chairman, said the Steering Committee aims to develop a new strategy plan for National Power 

Training Institute of Nigeria, NAPTIN.

The plan is also being sponsored by AFD in collaboration with CPCS of Canada, with the purpose of increasing private sector collaboration and sustainability, focusing on four pillars for development. The four pillars for development include organisational and corporate governance, customer focus (marketing orientation), skill and capacity building, and physical infrastructure.

The first phase of the training programme, which is designed to cover a period of four years, according to Celine Gratadour, the Project Manager, will gulp a total of €260,000. Gratador said further that the committee’s strategy will help increase NAPTIN sustainable programmes, adding that the new partnership between the French and Nigerian agencies, both public and private, is to launch NAPTIN training capabilities to higher levels.

Igali, who presided over the event, expressed government’s gratitude for the French initiative, as this will assist NAPTIN to build on the new thinking matrix of sourcing fund for its programmes outside conventional government allocation. The Permanent Secretary said that with this initiative, NAPTIN will deliver on its mandate in critical areas of capacity building for the sector.

According to him, “As a knowledge driven institution, NAPTIN will make the sector’s workforce to be more industry compliant, as the diagnostic audit proposed by the Steering Committee will entail a detailed feasibility study and risk management strategy.”

The package of assistance will also include a study tour of Morocco, for the purpose of understudying the model of their vocational training facilities. Igali also used the occasion to also thank the French, and other development partners, including the Japanese International Co-operation Agency, JICA, for their continued assistance and interventions.

Earlier, the NAPTIN Director General, Mr. Reuben Okeke, described the AFD partnership as historic, noting that the intervention will boost the capacity of the critical work force to fit into today’s Nigeria’s power sector.

 

- Source: Vanguard