EU, AFD pledge $46m financing for skill acquisition in power sector

The National Power Training Institute (NAPTIN) says Agence Française de Development (AFD), and the European Union (EU) have pledged $46 million in funding for vocational skills training in the power sector.

Ahmed Nagode, director-general of NAPTIN, said this in Abuja on Wednesday at a workshop on ‘Enhancing vocational training delivery for the Nigerian power sector’.

Nagode was represented by Kunle Oyenusi, the director, legal NAPTIN, and head, implementation unit (PIU) of the project.

He said the aggregate $46 million financing plan would be solely invested in NAPTIN for the enhancement of vocational skills training in Nigeria’s power sector.

Nagode said the project had three major components namely; product development, infrastructural development, and corporate development.

According to him, the project, upon completion, would reposition NAPTIN as a centre of excellence to serve the Nigeria electricity supply industry (NESI), West Africa power pool (WAPP), ECOWAS centre for renewable energy and energy efficiency (ECREEE), and the association of power utilities of Africa (APUA).

“The project has four specific objectives including developing training curricula adapted to the market needs and specialising the trainers,” he said.

Nagode said the project also aimed at reinforcing “NAPTIN’s attractiveness by building new technical infrastructure laboratories, workshops and acquiring relevant technical equipment for the network of the regional training centres, and headquarters in Abuja”.

Additionally, he said another goal of the project was to sustain public investment by setting up a sustainable business model and to deeply reform NAPTIN’s governance, procedures and policies into a more business-oriented institution.

“The main purpose of this workshop is to bring stakeholders together at a round table to talk about their training needs, so that NAPTIN can position its training products through infrastructure to deliver quality training that the sector needs,” he said.

Nagode added that the result of the interaction with stakeholders would be transmitted into the development of the training component.

He further noted that there was a need to ensure that human capacity is given the right attention to support generation, transmission, and distribution companies. 

“I thank the AFD and EU for providing the support on which the project rest.” he said.

“I assure you that NAPTIN will ensure that the training content and courses developed, suit the current and future needs of NESI.”