Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adekola Adelabu has inaugurated the Ministerial Power Sector Working Group. The inauguration took place on Tuesday in Abuja with Directors and Agencies under the supervision of the Ministry also signing performance contract to ensure proper tracking and supervision of projects.

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The performance contract was signed on behalf of the agencies by the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and the Permanent Secretary on behalf of the Directors.

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Agencies present at the signing ceremony includes the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Rural Electrification Agency (REA), National Power Training Institute (NAPTIN), Nigerian Electricity Management and Safety Agency(NEMSA), NELMCO, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission(NERC) and the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading(NBET).

Speaking at the event, the Minister said the inauguration of the working group would serve as a platform for supervisory, monitoring and oversight control and clarify issues with detailed explanation of what is happening in the sector, since the activities are inter-related.

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President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of executive and non-executive members for the newly established Nigerian Independent System Operator, NISO.

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In a statement issued on Wednesday by the Special Adviser to the President on Informaion and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga in Abuja, listed the names of members as, Adesegun Olugbade as the board chairman, while Abdu Mohammed Bello was appointed the Managing Director.

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Four other Executive Directors are Engineer Nafisatu Asabe Ali for Systems Operation, Engineer Shehu Abba-Aliyu for Systems Planning, Dr. Edmund Eje for Market Operations, and Mr. Babajide Ibironke for Finance and Corporate Services.

According to the statement, the Non-Executive Directors include Lamu Audu, representing Generation; Folake Soetan for Distribution; Tajudeen Giwa-Osagie as Market Expert; Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz for Transmission, and Alhaji Mahmuda Mamman, Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Power.

“The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) will finalise the recruitment process.

“These appointments align with the Electricity Act of 2023. They followed a memorandum from Vice President Kashim Shettima and a rigorous selection process conducted by the Independent Board Nomination Committee (IBNC) in collaboration with Phillips Consulting Limited.

“The creation of NISO fulfils a key mandate of the Electricity Act (2023), which requires the unbundling of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) into a Transmission System Provider (TSP) and an Independent System Operator (ISO).

“The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) officially established NISO on April 30, 2024. The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) are its subscribers, each holding equal equity shares.”

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The Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), through its Energy Management Systems project, has trained stakeholders in various Ministries and Agencies in Nigeria to enhance industrial energy performance and promote resource-efficient, cleaner production.

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The training took place in Abuja on Monday.

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The ECN said the initiative is implemented through programmatic approaches and the promotion of innovation in clean technology solutions.

Speaking during the event, the ECN Director General, Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi, stated that the aim of the training was to promote innovation in clean technology solutions under the NIG IEE/RECP Project, which is supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

According to him, the project is also targeted at strengthening national industrial energy efficiency (IEE) policies and regulatory frameworks to encourage the adoption of UNIDO’s Energy Management Systems Standards (EnMS/ISO 50001) in Nigeria.

The Director General said, “With the increase in energy prices and the environmental impacts of energy consumption, there is a growing need for balanced energy usage and effective energy management to minimize energy wastage. It is therefore commendable that this timely training on Energy Management Systems (EnMS) is organized to present a systematic framework for establishing policies, processes, procedures, and specific energy-related tasks aimed at meeting an organization’s energy-saving targets.”

Also, the Program Coordinator for Environment and Energy at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr. Oluyomi Banjo, commended the ECN for organizing the training.

He said, “Globally, industries account for one-third of total energy consumption and almost 40% of worldwide COz emissions. The need to reduce energy consumption, environmental degradation, and resource depletion by industries in emerging economies is particularly urgent. Since 1990, global growth in industrial production has been dominated by emerging economies like India and China, which together accounted for over 80% of increased industrial production during this period.

“This project was collectively developed and submitted by UNIDO on behalf of Nigeria in 2017 under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) 6 programming cycle. It was approved for full project development in 2017 and subsequently for full project implementation in 2020. It may interest you to know that, for the first time at UNIDO, we are integrating industrial energy efficiency with resource efficiency and cleaner production in a single project. In South Africa, UNIDO’s project on Industrial Energy Efficiency recently received the Best Project of the Year award from the Southern Africa Energy Efficiency Confederation. We look forward to replicating such achievements in Nigeria.”

“The outcome of this project is targeted at industries, aiming to develop an expert base in Nigeria that could also be exported to other countries in Africa and beyond.”

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