Oyebanji: We’ve Invested Billions of Naira in Urban, Rural Electricity Reconnection

Restates commitment to education policies for societal needs 

Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, has said that his administration had made remarkable impact in effective reconnection of urban and rural communities that were hitherto disconnected from the national grid, back by investing billions of naira in the sector.

Governor Oyebanji, who disclosed this  while receiving in audience a team from the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI), Abuja, led by its Technical Director, Lawal Lawal, lamented that the huge investment made by his government in the sector has not been adequately translated to effective power generation and distribution in such communities due to ineffective and poor coordination of the entire system.

He added that his administration has been able to demonstrate capacity and commitment to the effective growth and development of the state by reconnecting communities which for many years had no electricity to the national grid as well as providing highly subsidized smart data meters for them.

While commending President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for ensuring adequate power generation and distribution to all parts of the country through the laudable initiatives, Governor Oyebanji stressed that he was not encouraged with the poor handling of electricity generation and distribution system due to poor or no metering stance of the relevant bodies saddled with the responsibility.

“Since we did not get help from anybody, we decided to help ourselves and we are making impact. The only way we are having recourse to you is because we cannot produce meters. I don’t know if the commissioner had told you how much we have invested in rural and urban electricity. We’ve been able to connect them, buy transformers and do wiring, we’ve spent billions of Naira.

“For your agency to be effective, I heard you saying that meters are coming in; you can only buy meter when there is electricity, but our challenge here in the state is that the electricity coming here is small, and people have even paid for meter they can’t get the meter because they are not available, this is discouraging for us as a government so there is need to be proactive in the drive to serve the people right.

“I know how much we have spent on transformers, we are distributing transformers now, we have connected all our agriculture clusters but there has not been any connection,” the governor stated.

Earlier, the Technical Director of PMI, Lawal Lawal, noted that the initiative was a personal ambition of the president to close the Nigerian electricity metering gap by quickly assenting to a bill called Nigerian Electricity Act of 2023 which liberalized to give way to new electricity infrastructure nationally.

The technical director noted the matching order the president gave to the team to create a framework in which the seven million meter gap that currently exist is closed as soon as possible, adding that he was glad that all the states have supported the initiative with funding and other necessary support.

He commended Governor Oyebanji for the invaluable support they receive which have been instrumental to most of the success achieved so far as the initiative aims to deploy seven million end-use meters across the 774 local government areas within the 12 operating DISCO in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Oyebanji has restated the commitment of his administration to implementing education policies that are designed to meet society needs and equip students with practical skills for real-world challenges.

The governor stated this in his office at the weekend, while receiving a delegation from South Korea, led by the Koika Deputy Country Director, Mr Baik Ki-Hyyn, who  was in the state for an in-depth survey of the Smart School Project. 

Governor Oyebanji said his administration is strategically leveraging on smart technology in education to equip students with the needed skills, enhanced critical thinking and creativity to become solution providers, and ensuring that graduates in the state are well prepared to tackle contemporary challenges and contribute to the overall development of the state and the country at large.

He  thanked the South Korean Government for the partnership, stressing that  his administration has invested hugely in education not only for literacy and numeracy but for actual human capital development, making citizens globally competitive in productivity.

The governor added that  his government would continue to do everything possible to ensure that the state remain a leading state in smart technology for education at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of learning in the country.

“We appreciate Koika for the partnership with UBEC that birthed the smart schools in Ekiti State. Education is our main industry, we are one of the most educated states in the country and we also have an abiding duty to ensure that we sustain that prime place in the country.

“If you look at the six pillars of our administration, you will see human capital development in number three and since we came on board, we have been deliberate in our intervention in that sector because we believe that education owns the key to development and growth and there is no alternative to knowledge.  

“We also believe strongly that our education strategy and policy must address literacy and numeracy and they must also respond to the needs of the society”, the Governor asserted.

Earlier in his remarks, the  Head of Delegation and Koika Deputy Country Director, Mr. Ki-Hyyn, commended the governor for his commitment to advancing education through innovative policies. He said  Ekiti State had been exceptional among the six states chosen for the project which was launched in 2021.

The country director lauded the efforts of the state government in the education sector, noting that South Korean Government would be happy to embark on the second phase of the intervention under the Universal Basic Education Board in order to improve the capacity of the current schools as well as facilitate the reach to underserved and rural areas.