The National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) has been endorsed by the Association of Power Utilities in Africa (APUA) as a priority centre for training.

NAPTIN, through APUA’s endorsement, is now an admitted member of the African Network of Excellence in Electricity (ANCEE) and as a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in training for the power sector in Africa.

NAPTIN is now eligible to tap into a €13 million ($15.4 million) training fund, set aside by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and French Development Bank, for capacity development of power firms in African countries.

Currently, ANCEE has only eight training centres across Africa, including NAPTIN, which is the only training institute from West Africa.

Following an assessment process by APUA, the institute’s training centres and faculties were pre-qualified and its trainers made to share their methodology of training delivery to the satisfaction of the association at a workshop in Abidjan, Ivory Coas

Speaking on what NAPTIN would benefit from its validation as a CoE in power training, the director general of NAPTIN, Bolaji Nagode, explained: “This is epoch making because NAPTIN is moving into the next level of its mandate in the power sector.

“We have the opportunity to train workers in power utility companies of other African countries, and this will bring in lots of opportunities for us and Nigeria”.

According to the Director General, APUA has requested the institute to design a selection of training programmes for 42 staff of the utility companies in Ghana.

The institute has also been granted an opportunity to select one if its staff to facilitate a training programme for the power utility company of Mali (Energie Du Mali – EDM).

“There is no doubt we will also get foreign exchange in terms of payments that would be made to us for selling our services. APUA will sponsor and pay for this. We have programmes that will target all African countries with standard syllabus and well trained faculty,” Nagode added.

According to Nagode , “This admission as a Centre of Excellence didn’t come as a gift; it is like a reward for the number of years and efforts we had put in to get us to this level in terms of infrastructural development.

“We have world class state of the art equipment in all the various programmes for capacity development in the power sector, we equally have demonstration plants and we will definitely sustain standards because that is the basis of our election as a Centre of Excellence in the first place,” Nagode explained.

As a member of ANCEE, NAPTIN can now benefit from sharing knowledge and best practices with other training CoE in Africa; expand its courses offerings, attract foreign direct investment through training patronage from other African countries; upgrade its training facility; and increase the quality of its training in harmony with international best practice standards expected from all CoEs.