FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PREPARES YOUTHS TO MAN POWER SECTOR
The federal government has put structures in place to make Nigerian youths
industry-ready to man the evolving private sector driven power sector.
This is aimed at providing self and paid employment for the youths, while also
meeting the local content requirement for the power sector, to avoid foreign
domination.
Minister of Power Professor Chinedu Nebo made this known while addressing
the closing ceremony of the 2014 Youth Summit of the Youth Initiative for
Leadership and Rural Development YILARD, in Abuja.
He explained that the reforms in the Power sector were well thought-out and
deliberately planned to incorporate this wealth-creation component.
Professor Nebo pointed out that specific schemes and initiatives targeted at
empowering young Nigerians included the Power Sector Entrepreneurship
programme, the SURE-P, and the capacity development offered through the
National Power Training Institute NAPTIN, whose graduates were already being
engaged to provide the needed technical expertise in the privatized power
sector.
He disclosed that about 7,400 young men and women were to receive training
to revolutionise the Nigerian electricity market, when President Goodluck
Jonathan officially flags off the skills acquisition and entrepreneurship scheme
for the power sector.
The Minister credited the Goodluck Jonathan administration for boldly
reforming the sector, and for employing about one thousand young engineers
into the system which, for over sixteen years, did not employ any new
engineer.
According to him, the reforms are being religiously implemented, with a view
to achieving sufficiency in power supply, which will usher in industrialization
and greater economic growth than has already been achieved.
He charged the youths to discountenance insinuations about Nigeria being or
becoming a failed state, and assured them that the country is overcoming its
challenges, has become Africa’s largest economy, and become one of the
world’s top 4 nations in return-on-investment.
Speaking on the Federal Government’s recent move of taking delivery of 248
containers of vital electricity equipment abandoned at the ports for several
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years before the Jonathan administration, the Minister said the abandonment
was a demonstration of the need to privatise the sector, as no private
entrepreneur would have tolerated such waste.
He said the action was taken in line with the present administration’s policy of
minimizing waste and maximizing benefits, synergizing with all stakeholders,
including the Customs Service, leading to the release of the containers.
It will be recalled that the Minister of Power, in company of the Permanent
Secretary Dr. Godknows Igali, personally took delivery of the power
transmission equipment and flagged off their evacuation for immediate
delivery to project sites, on Thursday 24th July this year.
The 2014 Youth Summit of the Youth Initiative for Leadership and Rural
Development YILARD, was held with the theme 'Power Sector Reform and its
Benefits to Nigerian Youths'.
Kande Daniel
Special Assistant on Media to the HMP
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