Energy and Power
Tinuade Sanda: Solving the energy puzzle
Following the privatisation of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, in 2013, 11 electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs, emerged. One of them is the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, which is currently the largest electricity distribution company in the sub-Saharan African region.
Of special interest today is the fact that out of the 11 distribution companies, just one is currently managed by a woman. Thus, in an industry dominated by males, Dr Tinuade Toyin Sanda can best be described as an amazon on a mission to prove the axiom that what a man can do, a woman can do better.
In terms of competence, she can be described as a consummate entrepreneur with experience that traverses academia, finance, oil and gas, energy, trade and diplomacy, hence her choice of the individual to run the leading power distribution and energy firm with interest traversing across other sub-sectors in the electricity value chain can be seen as a square peg in a square hole.
On leadership skills, Sanda is an accomplished professional and business executive leader in the energy industry with over 22 years of extensive experience in financial management, financial reporting, treasury management and particularly over 14 years experience in various leadership roles.
This trail brazing amazon holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Financial Management and Entrepreneurship and Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with specialisation in Strategic Planning from Edinburgh Business School, Herriot Watt University, Scotland, UK.
Her work experience spans a stint in the banking and finance industry, oil and gas as well as the power sector. Thus, she is equipped with the necessary knowledge to strategically transform organisations to attain growth, competitiveness and remarkable outcomes.
Obviously, Sanda’s educational background and career experience helped shape who she is as a business executive leader, a mentor to young professionals, and a sort-after keynote speaker in major seminars, webinars and capacity-building trainings in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large.
Her career pedigree consists of her time in the banking sector, where she handled different roles such as the relationship manager at Chartered Bank in 2001. In search of bigger challenges, she proceeded to Access Bank in 2003. While serving in Access Bank, she gained extensive experience in branch operations, customer service, cash management and retail credit management.
Prior to joining EKEDC in 2013, she was the Head of finance and Administration at Vanguard Energy Resources, a leading oil and gas trading services company.
Sanda holds awards and prestigious memberships of many professional bodies in Nigeria and abroad. She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, the Institute of Management Consultants, the Institute of Credit Management Administration and the Institute of Professional Financial Managers, United Kingdom. She is also an associate member of Risk Management Association of Nigeria and the Institute of Directors, Nigeria.
She is passionate about empowering young people and takes great pride in mentoring youths to seek creative ways of galvanising their energies for sustained excellence and productivity.
For instance, she has trained young Nigerian experts overseas on the management of key power sector assets. They have returned and are now manning the infrastructure.
Sanda has constantly provided innovative solutions to economic and energy-related challenges in Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. She also exhibits passion to see Nigeria access energy and power supply uninterruptedly. An advocate of renewable energy, she has been in the forefront of those calling for an affordable, reliable and sustainable energy supply which can only be achieved through the adoption of various energy mix.
Since assuming office as the MD/CEO of EKEDC, she has achieved remarkable milestones. These achievements include the highest-ever monthly collection of N15b, the lowest-ever ATC&C losses of 15.69 per cent, the successful relaunch of the Meter Asset Provider, MAP, Scheme and the installation of 110 transformers within EKEDC’s network to alleviate overload challenges just to name a few.
Her achievements also include being the first DISCO to conclude and submit its Audited Financial Statement for the financial year 2022. The act opened up the company’s financial books for public scrutiny at a time when competitors continue to shy away from incorporating ethics of corporate governance.
Under her management, EKEDC’s prides itself as ‘customer-centric.’ In this regard, her leadership spurred complaint resolution to 99.2 per cent in 2023 despite a 35.8 per cent increase in the number of customer complaints in the year.
Overwhelmed by the performance, the Nigerian Electricity Industry Regulator, NERC, applauded her achievement with a commendation for being the only DISCO that is currently fully ready for the deployment of the NERC Customer Engagement Platform.
In the area of empowering employees with the necessary tools to deliver on their duties, the amazon manager at EKEDC has engaged the deployment of a centralised internet service to all EKEDC locations to ensure conducive working conditions. In addition, under her leadership the company deployed a data backup and disaster recovery site to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster.
Following the economic reality of the time, Dr Sanda has ensured the company embraced efforts to cushion the effects of the economic downturn on its workers. In this regard, the company engaged in a 25 per cent increase in staff salary across the board to account for Cost of Living Adjustment, COLA.
The company under her watch had engaged 437 new line workers hired to ease district work, 602 staff hired in total so far.
There is also the conclusion of 2020 and 2021 performance appraisal process leading to the promotion of 629 staff. 246 individuals also received step increase. While 24 staff had step alignment, 280 received one-off bonus and 60 were placed on PIP.
These accomplishments highlight her dedication to driving positive change and excellence in the energy sector.
Sanda is passionate about innovation, collaboration and continuous improvements to drive success and achieve remarkable outcomes.
Credit: Vanguard
President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of executive and non-executive members for the newly established Nigerian Independent System Operator, NISO.
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.
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.”
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.
The training took place in Abuja on Monday.
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.”
The Rural Electricity Agency (REA), in partnership with the Adamawa State Government, is set to convene the REA – Adamawa State Strategic Roundtable theme “Empowering Adamawa: Unlocking Private Sector Opportunities in Distributed Renewable Energy”, scheduled for the 3rd of March, 2025 at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja. The Agency invites frontline stakeholders in the clean energy ecosystem, including private sector players and development finance institutions to this strategic, solution-focused Roundtable.
In line with the Agency’s ongoing State-by-State initiative designed to exploit the tenets of the 2023 Electricity Act, passed into Law by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, the Agency has sustained its drive to deliver on the objectives of the futuristic Act, while strengthening the National Electrification and Strategy Implementation Plan (NESIP).
Leaning on the strategic efforts of the Honourable Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, the REA State-by-State Strategic Roundtables continue to serve as a veritable tool and a meeting point to facilitate impactful partnerships between active stakeholders in the energy sector while exploring opportunities for the growth of the state electricity markets.
Having convened five Roundtables with five State Governments, the Agency is now working in lockstep with the Adamawa State Government, at the behest of His Excellency, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Finitri, and the Managing Director of the REA, Abba Abubakar Aliyu, to facilitate structured, data-driven commitments for people-centred infrastructural development through innovation and sustainability in Adamawa State’s electricity market.
The State Government, under the leadership of Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, has advanced efforts towards strengthening its electricity market, including the planned establishment of Independent Power Plants across the state and the set-up of the Adamawa State Electricity Commission tasked with regulating the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in the State.
The 2023 Electricity Act, having aided the decentralization of the nation’s electricity sector has given State Governments the regulatory freedom over their respective electricity market.
Leaning on the mandate of the REA as well as the Agency’s technical and strategic expertise, the REA – Adamawa State Strategic Roundtable will serve as an opportunity to exploit the tenets of the NESIP; strengthening PPPs for data-driven clean energy projects in Adamawa state; supporting the State’s efforts on improved electricity distribution and renewable energy integration; exploring investment opportunities in Adamawa State Electricity market and exploring technology options for improved, sustainable energy access in the State.
-
News4 days agoBill to establish National Cashew Production and Research Institute in Kogi passes first reading in Senate
-
Security1 week agoNigerian Coast Guard: Citizens warned against extortion as passage of bill is being awaited
-
Politics1 week agoRetired military officer, colonel Gbenga Adegbola, joins APC with 13,000 supporters
-
Politics1 week agoCPDPL accuses Adeyanju of orchestrating smear campaign against FCT Minister Wike
-
News4 days agoShehu Sani debunks Governor Uba Sani’s alleged diversion of LG funds, challenges El-Rufai to publicly tender evidence
-
News4 days agoReport of attack on Wike’s Port Harcourt residence false, misleading – Police
-
News4 days agoPlateau gov’t expresses concern over violence in Shendam LGA, calls for calm
-
Sports5 days agoMerino gives Arsenal win over Chelsea