Yemisi Izuora
Egbin Power Plc has announced plans to expand its staff quarters in keeping with its commitment to staff welfare and ensuring optimal performance at the plant which accounts for about one-quarter of the nation’s total generation capacity.
The expansion, the company said, is in addition to ongoing upgrade of the Housing Estate which was commissioned in 1985 as part of the Egbin Power facility to provide accommodation for employees.
The company also plans to establish a training school with global affiliations to boost human capital development through bespoke and generic programmes that will be designed for all levels of staff at the company.
Unveiling these plans in Lagos, Kola Adesina, Chairman, Egbin Power Plc said the new management had upon acquisition of the facility in 2013 moved to upgrade of the Housing Estate through major repair works and refurbishment of the housing units which had been left unattended over the years.
He explained that the company had improved security within the facility to ensure safety of its staff and other stakeholders.
The upgrade, he stated, also included major repairs on the schools in the Estate as well as the recreational centres. “Our staff are our greatest asset.
When we came on board, one of the first few initiatives we implemented was targeted at empowering our people. Today, I am happy to confirm that there has been a paradigm shift that is powering professionalism, integrity, resilience and service excellence at Egbin.
In fact, resurgent spirit of excellence is one of the key reasons why we have achieved many milestones, including hitting generation capacity of 1,100mw that is driving improved power supply nation-wide,” he said.
He added: “You may recall that as at the time of acquisition and takeover there was a huge infrastructure deficit.
The Housing Estate and Complex as well as the Club House which were dilapidated have been refurbished and further renovation work is on-going as we speak.
“The plan is not just to refurbish what was in existence; the plan is to equally build more houses for our staff and establish a training school that will drive sustainable optimal performance and transfer of knowledge.”
According to him, the school will address the need for seeking offshore intervention for basic operational challenges and ultimately provide huge savings on the attendant foreign exchange transactions.
“We intend to set up our own training school and workshop as well to bring about a situation where training at offshore locations is not the first line of action. We believe that when this is achieved, we will have the capacity to rehabilitate our facilities here without having to bring in expatriates or take some of the machines offshore for maintenance or repairs.
We are confident that this will soon be a thing of the past and ultimately, we see our training school becoming the hub for growing capacity in the power sector,” he reiterated.
Adesina said Sahara Power Group, comprising Egbin Power Plc, Ikeja Electric and First Independent Power Limited; had in the last one year trained 100 young graduate engineers who had since been deployed to these entities for further grooming that will make them future experts in the sector.