The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has said that the first phase of the Presidential Power Initiative will benefit over 40 Million Nigerians with 11,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Ahmed while speaking in Abuja on Monday at the Flag Off: Training on Network Development Studies noted the initiative will in turn improve the standard of living while providing homes and businesses with constant, reliable and affordable electricity supply.
Meanwhile, Ahmed noted that commissioning of the training is intended to deliver capacity development for engineers in network development using proprietary simulation software by Siemens.
“The strategy in training will enable students in our universities, staff in Distribution Companies and Transmission Company of Nigeria and other agencies of government learn or improve capacity in this area”.
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Earlier, Minister of Power, Engr. Abubakar Aliyu, represented by Minister of State for Power, Goddy Agba noted that the training which will cover Power System Simulations and Network Development Studies is important because of the immediate to long-term impact it will have on the people-side of the electricity sector reform.
Aliyu explained that whilst the government is not resting on its oars to erase epileptic power supply in Nigeria once and for all, the project is expected to modernize, rehabilitate and expand the national grid by investing in the electricity value chain (generation, transmission, and distribution systems) of the power sector.
“The objective of the PPI is to increase the end-to-end grid operational capacity of the power system in Nigeria to 25GW but the focus in the next 18 months, it will deliver the first additional 2000 MW”.
He explained that the initiative will create a rapid transformation in the on-grid electricity value chain, spur economic growth, create jobs and opportunities for Nigerian Youth and Enterprises, drive local content development through training opportunities and capacity building in the sector.
He added that the training of sector engineers from today will empower Nigeria’s engineers with the tools to manage the infrastructure to be deployed and in turn enable improved service delivery to households and businesses across the country.