ABUJA- The Chairman, Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), Gen. Martin-Luther Agwai, said that SURE-P was expending 2.5 million naira to train each graduate engineer at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria.
Agwai said this in Abuja during an interactive session with some stakeholders in the power sector.
The programme was organised by SURE-P, the Technical Vocational Education and Training Project (TVET ) in collaboration with National Power Training Institute of Nigeria.
SURE-P had earlier signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NAPTIN to fund the training of young Nigerian engineers, as a way of building capacity in the power sector.
Agwai said that the training became necessary given the enormous role of the power sector in the development of Nigeria.
He said that the interaction with stakeholders was to discuses on possible ways of absorbing the trained graduates in their various private establishments.
He said that the training would assist in providing man power required to support the power generation, distribution and transmission activities in the sector.
Agwai described TVET SUREP empowerment programme as a safety in the development of the power industry.
He said that the intervention was equipping many government agencies to train and empower Nigerian youths .
Agwai said that the NAPTIN training programme would graduate the first batch of 220 engineers in August.
He said that NAPTIN would also commence the training of another 150 set of engineers before the end of this week.
The chairman said the trained engineers in different areas of power generation, transmission and distribution would be useful for power generating companies in the country.
He called on stakeholders to partner with them, to reduce the unemployment in the country.
The convener of TVET, Mr Peter Esele, said that one of the mandate of TVET in SUREP was to reduce unemployment and poverty in Nigeria.
He said that SURE-P was investing in development of skills, building institutional capacity and investing in technical and vocational training infrastructure on the youths.
Esele said that the client based employment skills and placement programme ranged from capacity building for construction, automobile, ICT and power sectors.
He said that SURE-P had effectively collaborated with eight government agencies, including NAPTIN, for various training of youths in different trades.
“So far 2,000 auto mechanics skills have been improved across the country and each beneficiary has been empowered with a set of diagnostics tools.
