Jennifer Adighije: Bringing Vibrancy, Experience to Consolidate NDPHC

With her appointment as the new Managing Director of the  Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Jennifer Adighije, who started her career as a transmission maintenance engineer at the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), is expected to  leverage technology and human capital to drive positive change in  NDPHC, writes Festus Akanbi

In line with the mood of the nation, the wave of transformation sweeping the key agencies of government crept into the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC),  On Monday, August 26, 2024, when  Chiedu Ugbo, Ugbo, an electric energy law specialist with over 30 years of extensive experience in electricity industry reform, power project documentation, and privatisation handed over the mantle of leadership of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) to Engineer Jennifer Adighije following the expiration of his second tenure of four years. Ugbo was first appointed in August 2016 after which President Muhammadu Buhari renewed the tenure for a second and final term. It ended on Friday, August 23 and he handed it over to Adighije.

NIPP was originally designed around seven medium-sized gas-fired power stations in the gas-producing states this was later increased to 10 with the additional three in Kogi, Ogun, and Ondo states, and the critical transmission infrastructure needed to evacuate the added power into the national grid. A commitment to electrify host communities in the vicinity of the power stations and major substations gave rise to the distribution component of the project.

Observers said the positive sentiment engendered by the appointment of the youthful Adighije who boasts of academic and practical knowledge and experiences spanning electricity, telecommunications, central banking, politics, and governance is not misplaced. It is believed the new boss would bring her education and diverse experience to bear, especially at a time when the federal government is desirous of raising grid electricity generation and distribution to 6,000MW by the end of 2024.

She is a graduate of the University of Lagos with a B.Sc. in electrical and electronics engineering. She later obtained an M.Sc. in wireless networks and telecommunications at Queen Mary University of London and returned to Nigeria in 2006. She was born on April 15, 1983, to the Adighije family of Abia state. Her father, Chris Adighije, served as the senator representing Abia central senatorial district under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from 2003 to 2007. Chris defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2016 and is now a chieftain of the ruling party.

Adighije started her career as a transmission maintenance engineer at the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) from where she joined Globacom as Network Switching Subsystem (NSS) specialist, after which she worked with Helios Towers Nig, a telecommunication infrastructure company, as a head of operations and planning.

In 2018, she joined the Central Bank of Nigeria as a value engineer and cost controller in the procurement department and left in September 2023 when she was appointed as a senior special assistant (entrepreneurship development in communications, innovation, and the digital economy) to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Her Vision

While receiving handover notes, Adighije promised to hit the ground running. She told her audience “Our mandate at NDPHC is clear: to execute and manage national IPP assets optimally. My vision rests on three pillars: optimising asset performance. Number two, optimising our processes to ensure that we can drive organisational and operational efficiency, and number three, which happens to be the most critical is to ensure we leverage technology and human capital to drive positive change in the organisation and with our external stakeholders. number three is very crucial to me because our human capital is our greatest asset. Our human capital is the powerhouse to assist in making positive change.

The fashionpreneur, a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) is currently in the second year of her doctoral study at the Catholic University of Murcia, Spain. She got married to Obiora Okolo, a US-based medical doctor, in 2013.

Her hobbies include reading, cooking, and making a social impact. She is a humanitarian, a life member of the Rotary Club, and a social-entrepreneurship advocate. She is a patron of the Digi-Tech Empowerment Foundation for Youths, where she dedicates her time and resources to fostering digital inclusion by bridging access gaps for digitally vulnerable youths.

In August 2005, the National Council of State and the National Assembly approved initial funding for NIPP from the excess crude savings account’ (ECSA) which statutorily belongs to the Federal, State, and Local Governments. The Federal Government therefore incorporated the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC) as a limited liability company to serve as the legal vehicle to hold the NIPP assets using private sector-orientated best business practices. NDPHC has a current installed capacity of 3,585 MW and contributes over 40 percent of the power requirement in the grid. The plants include Benin Generation Company Limited at Ihovba, Edo state, Calabar Generation Company Limited, Cross River state, Geregu Generation Company Limited, Kogi state, Olorunsogo Generation Company Limited, Ogun state, Omotosho Generation Company Limited, Ondo state, Olorunsogo II, Ogorode (Sapele), Delta State, Geregu II, Omotosho II, Ihovbor, Alaoji, Gbarain in Bayelsa State, Omoku, Rivers State, Egbema, Imo State and Alaoji steam.

With just about three of the plants still under construction, and hundreds of thousands of kilometres of transmission and distribution lines, substations, and transformers installed across the length and breadth of the country, NDPHC can be said to have entered the stage of consolidation.