A total of 200 people in Adamawa and Borno States have benefitted from workshops on renewable energy sponsored by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
Each venue in Yola and Maiduguri hosted 100 trainees on solar energy installation and maintenance.
The training, anchored by a Varelis Global Company Ltd and titled “Renewable Energy Workshop for Energy Resilience in Northeast Nigeria” built the participants’ technical and entrepreneurial capacities in renewable energy systems, the organisers said.
Mr Ekpa Adejo, who represented the coordinating firm and the board, during the opening ceremony in Adamawa that the trainees, upon being certified, would be expected to ensure increased access to reliable and affordable energy by the people of the Northeast.
Adejo said through a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical field experience, the participants would acquire the competence needed to design, install, operate, maintain and commercialise renewable energy solutions.
“This will promote energy resilience, job creation and sustainable development in the region,” he said.
Also during the event, the Adamawa State Commissioner of Works and Energy, Engr Mohammed Suleiman, speaking through Engr Nyachqka Christopher Joseph, said the state has many solar installations that have become dysfunctional mainly due to a lack of maintenance experts, which underscores the importance of the training as a veritable source of the needed professionals.
He added that the state has dozens of solar mini-grids, some still under construction, all of which will require trained personnel to maintain, further demonstrating the importance of the training.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary of the Adamawa State Ministry of Youths and Sports, Mr Albert Ray, described the training program as timely, given the state’s yearning for youths to be gainfully engaged.
“Apart from direct employment, the government has been sponsoring and supporting self-employment initiatives for youths so that they can be productive,” Albert said, urging the trainees to be serious in learning and coming out to be not only self-reliant but also vehicles for other youths to gain knowledge and set up businesses of their own.
Pharm Ibrahim Talba, a director at the Adamawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency, who represented the agency’s chairman, Dr Suleiman Bashir, urged participants to train hard and be ready to help maintain the solar installations at the various primary health centres across the state.
