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Failure to recruit engineers worsens power supply – NAPTIN

By BusinessNews Staff on August 28, 2014

The 16-year embargo placed on the recruitment of engineers before the power sector was privatised worsened electricity supply across the country, the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria has said.

According to the institute, the embargo was placed on all forms of recruitments by the Federal Government in 1998.

The Director-General, NAPTIN, Mr. Reuben Okeke, told our correspondent in an exclusive interview in Abuja on Tuesday that there was no structured recruitment programme at the time, a development that had impacted negatively on the sector.

He said, “What the minister said is correct because 1998 was when we had official embargo on employment in the Power Holding Company of Nigeria. That was when the issue of privatisation started, and so, there was an embargo on employment in 1998. But before then, there was no structured recruitment for engineers in the power sector.

“During that time, the training department of NEPA or PHCN would go round to conduct interviews for engineers and other technical officers of the power firm in each state.”

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, had last month stated that prior to the privatisation of the successor companies of the PHCN, the firm employed no new engineers for over 16 years.

Nebo said this in Abuja at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Youth Summit organised by the Youth Initiative for Leadership and Rural Development.

According to him, this flaw and a few other issues led to the abysmal performance of the power sector and contributed to the abandonment of electrical equipment at the ports for several years.

The minister stated that the present reforms in the sector had led to the employment of about 1,000 young engineers.

He said the reforms were being religiously implemented with a view to achieving sufficiency in power supply, which would usher in industrialisation and greater economic growth than had already been achieved.

Speaking further on the issue, Okeke said human capital was almost comatose during the period.

The NAPTIN DG said, “But ever since 1993 or 1995, such structured recruitment did not go on. The embargo of 1998 was not only on engineers, but included all other departments of the power firm.

“And, of course, it affected a lot of things and my impression about it is that it was a very big minus for the development of human capital, which is the key for running, operating and maintaining the electricity that you see.

“The human capital is key and number one. So, if there has been an embargo on recruitment and no structured recruitment was allowed, that, to a large extent, affected the performance of electricity supply across the country.”

[Punch]

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