Richard Ginika Izuora
Eko Electricity Distribution Company has recently launched a Safety College scheme which aims to raise employee awareness on the safe implementation of their tasks and improve the overall safety culture within the organization.
This was made known in a statement signed by the EKEDC General Manager Corporate Communications and Strategy, Babatunde Lasaki. Lasaki revealed that the scheme is planned as training courses targeted at educating a minimum of 90% of the operations team members (lines men, lines mate, cable jointers etc.) before the end of the year. He said, “Over the years we realized that the majority of accidents caused within our network are due to a knowledge deficiency and procedural breach in our current operations which reiterates the need for retraining of all the operational staff in batches through the initiative”.
According to Babatunde Lasaki, 1100 personnel will be trained in Standard Protection Code, HSE, and Security Modules in 10 batches of 110 participants per batch which shall form part of personnel appraisal for the year and feed into the scorecard provision of the Human Resource department.
Lasaki further revealed that the program began during the recently concluded World Day for Safety and Health at Work and will be intensified and run continuously as part of the training modules for the staff every year to highlight the importance of safety practice as well as instill and deepen HSE culture among the staff. He said, “We believe the initiative will facilitate the desired level of ownership, engagements and participation that is required to reduce/eliminate accidents and sustain the HSE Management System.”
When asked about the recent story of electrocution of two EKEDC staff reported by the police, Mr. Lasaki described it as an unfortunate situation and assured the public that the families of the deceased have been engaged and all other steps are being taken to provide succor to the family of the deceased. He said, “We sympathize with the families of the deceased and are currently engaging them. The cause of the accident does not change the fact that lives were lost, and this is what we are eager to address with the safety college.”
