Interview by Oscarline Onwuemenyi with the pioneer Director-General and CEO of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), Engr. Reuben Okeke.

Tell us about NAPTIN

NAPTIN was established in March, 2009, following Federal Government’s decision to address power challenge which is the bedrock of development of any nation. There are critical issues that must be addressed before the light we have can stand, there is the physical infrastructure, fuel, which comprise of water and gas and most important is the workforce. If any of them is lacking, it will be very difficult to achieve generating electricity and distributing it. The FG decided to make the training unit from PHCN to become a stand-alone agency under ministry of power in oder to address the most critical input in ensuring that electricity is guaranteed for all.

The organ responsible to bring up those that will ensure physical infrastructure is NAPTIN there are no two of such institutions now in Nigeria. So NAPTIN was created in March 2003 and we have our mandate, vision and mission, but the most important thing is to actualise the mandate which government has given us. We are to ensure that every body, both technical and non-technical, working in the power sector, that their skill and knowledge is upgraded to meet modern technology so that when government achieves 25,000MW in the year 2020, we can have enough capable hands to sustain it.

We have ensured that we have a very good environment for learning and to create some intervention courses because for the last 20-25 years there have not been any structured training, until 2009 when NAPTIN was created. As at the time NAPTIN was created we had very well neglected seven regional training centers.

How critical was the gap that was created as a result of lack of training and to what extent has it impacted on the efficiency of the power sector workers?

Because the huge gap existed, right from 1989-90 that training went down, it has had a huge effect on the sector, but it is not very obvious to a lame man. But to a large extent it is what was responsible for the dismal performance of the power sector. that electricity is not there, we have very low voltage, 50 per cent of what was responsible was not just because we did not have the generating capacity, but the human capital. Because have to well informed to know how to manage the little that you have, and if you don’t have that knowledge it will be difficult for you to manage. If somebody who does not know when switch on and off, and he does it wrongly, once you have mar operation, its going to cause outage. So those of us that has been in the power sector, especially in distribution can tell you that 50 per cent of why the efficiency of power sector went down was because of lack of training. Because if people are very well trained, the little you have you will know how to manage it.

You will know what will be the effect of not maintaining a distribution transformer along the street as at when due. I started from scratch and rose to become the CEO of the biggest distribution company in the country and the longest serving on, so I should be able to tell you authoritatively that lack of training has resulted in the poor power sector, and this huge gap has to be breached if we can get the power sector to be on the right track to perform

How many people has NAPTIN so far trained?

We started in 2009 and so far we have trained 3, 998 people, as at last week. Apart from our intervention courses, we have to do profiling for the facilitators and instructors, and we take them out for train the trainers programme. Before we can deliver credible training, we have to retrain, because our instructors are ageing, we are training both the workers and facilitators as well. Our training covers all category, most especially the lines men, cable joint men.

Also the district sub station operators and electrical system operators who work 24 hours, so when they carry out wrong operations it can collapse the system, when they carry out wrong operation somebody can die. They are very important to the system and we don’t joke with them, they form majority of the people we have trained. Even the CEOs of discos, we trained them on leadership to improve on what they do.

What is your take on casualisation in the power sector that is supposed to be highly professional?

Nigerians would always try to survive; electricians will always try to do this. Right now across the country, we will always hear of what is called NEPA two. I am not trying to absolve the PHCN worker that they don’t get involved in illegal activities. But majority of illegal jobs that are being done by these NEPA two who are not trained at all. You see a lot of them hanging around PHCN offices, these people are responsible for illegal jobs. You see them hang around, and when people are coming to PHCN office to report fault they discourage them and tell them they can help them get their jobs done faster.

They try to do jobs they are not trained to do and try to work in the night and get electrocute, there is nothing we can do about it. You used the word casualistaion, yes, I will agree, because there’s not being any structured employment since governments embargo on employment, so some of our CEOs have an adhoc arrangement because the lines men are not much, so they hire some labourers to help them move ladders around. But along the line, these people from carrying ladder start to do the jobs themselves and get electrocuted.

You cant afford to make a mistake with electricity, once you make a mistake you pay with your life. What NAPTIN is doing about it, first of all, is to encourage the CEOs to train all those, because as people are retiring you need to replace them. We have very aged working staff right now, and I think that between now and 2015, most of the people that received real structured training would have retired. so NAPTIN have been established at the right time, and the CEOs can give training to those they can regularize.

Who pays for the trainings and how do you generate funding for your work?

Any training that we do, we take money for it, so the CEOs look at the number of they can give us and they give us the money from the central pool meant for training at PHCN. And almost 60 per cent of the training fee is spent on the trainee for decent accommodation, and feeding and other welfare. So when we bill the trainings and the CEO is ok with it, we send the cost to the corporate headquaters of PHCN and they give us the money.

What becomes of NAPTIN post-privatization, and is there any kind of training for workers to prepare for privatisation?

People always ask us, after privatization what becomes of NAPTIN? There is not be any accelerated training programme to prepare people for privatization, because you don’t do training in a hurry, or what will happen after privatization. Privatisation is one of the best things that has happened to the sector, because it is going to keep the workers in the power sector on their toes, it is going to bring competition.

I have spent about 32 years in the system, I can say that we have tried everything, what we have not tried is privatization, it is going to move it forward. Coming to NAPTIN, it is going to make NAPTIN to be on a bigger circle, because private organizations know that training is key. So they are going to ensure that they train their staff because that is the only thing that can move them forward, and where else can they get, they can only get from an institute set up and equip by government for the very purpose. So government is giving us all the necessary support.

There is certainly going to be competition among the distribution companies, and they can only rely on a workforce you have trained. They can procure training outside, nobody is stopping them. But instead of spending about 20, 000 Euro to train a staff overseas, and you know that you can get that same training here in NAPTIN, it is better to get it here. So after privatization, NAPTIN is going to be of a very strong footing and there is going to be a very big market. Presently, NAPTIN under the supervision of the ministry of power has gotten the first draft of the national power training policy, which the electricity reform act of 2005 provided for.

The first draft will be in the public domain any moment from now now, and we will have a public forum for all stakeholders in the power sector to come and debate it. once it is passed into law it becomes a law, and if you violate it, your license might be withdrawn. One of the key things it stresses is that all employers must ensure that 10 days out of 365 days in a year must be spent in training and re-training their workers.

Can you shed some light on some of the partnerships you have negotiated?

Because training is key; we have a lot of external donors when we were established, and we had to reach out to some of those donors to come to our aid financially and technically. And one of those donors that were the first to come to us is the GIZ. They recently gave us 5000,000 euros for Kainji training centre where we went to some hours back. They have also given us some equipment which we have not installed; the equipment will be installed before March next year when this place will be officially commissioned.

They did not stop there, they went forward with the German foreign ministry to get 1 million euro assistance for NAPTIN, just two days ago, I got a mail that it has been approved, and they are doing it under Nigerian-German energy partnership, which is under the presidency.

That 1 million euros, they will use it to train the trainers for us, for renewable energy. They will use it as well to build two turbines that will produce 20 kilowatt each. One for solar and the other for wind mill. They are going to install it in our Jos regional training centre and train Nigerians that will get involved in renewable with an aim to help us develop clean energy.

Another body, the Unites States Trade Development Agency (USTDA), they have given us with a grant which I signed on August 2010, of $652,000, to be used for loss reduction. we have been talking of technical and commercial losses, which is responsible for inefficiency in the power sector. So USTDA is coming to assist us with the fund to train us how to reduce losses.

They are going to carry out the training in Eko, Ikeja and Abuja distribution companies. They will train us in IT technology to reduce losses. They are coming through NAPTIN so that when they are done, we will replicate what they have done in the remaining eight distribution companies. Technical and commercial losses are very responsible for lack of our poor energy generation.

If we can improve or reduce losses by 5 or 10 per cent, the amount of money we are going to get, will help us go a long way. If we get what USTDA wants do and we are able to arrest these losses then the efficiency of power sector will improve. We have $1.6 million backing from World Bank as well for capacity building. We have just concluded in-country training for some of our engineers, and we also took some of our engineers to India for training from the loan. They in turn come back to train other. All these people are less than 45 years because World Bank has a policy now that you don’t spend their money training anyone more than 45 years, so that you can have enough value for the money spent on them. Also out of that money we have created two regional training centers in Kano and Ojji River in Enugu state, and we just relocated our Jos training center from a rented apartment to a more comfortable place and we are using part of the money for IT equipment for these training schools.

What are your immediate challenges and are looking at extending your services beyond Nigeria?

We are looking beyond Nigeria, we are going to ECOWAS. In fact, we already have a scheduled meeting with West Africa Power Company. We want to engage people outside Nigeria to come and procure training here. We are getting equipment which is costing us about 435,000 Pounds at Ijora training school, so that people can be forced to come to us, and it will enable us to survive and train more Nigerians who will come to us in future.

On our challenges, first of all is to change the mind set of workers. Those who come to NAPTIN for training today, already have a set mind, it is for us to correct it so that by the time they get back, they can begin to work with what they have leant. Also getting the employers to know that training is not an expenditure but an investment.

A lot of people with just agree with you that training is good, but when it comes to budgeting, you see human capital development taking the least, that is our greatest challenge. We also want government to put in more money to NAPTIN, they have actually done alot, but there is still a lot more to be done. We do not have enough budgetary allocation, for example the Ijora main campus we want to develop will take not less $8 million. So we need more money until we can stand on our own.