From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
As part of measures to make the power sector more effective, the management of Transcorp Power Limited in Ughelli, Delta State, has advocated the need to privatise the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Besides, the company called for more investment in the power sector to enable it surmount the myriad of challenges.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Transcorp, Christopher Ezeafulukwe, made the suggestions while speaking with journalists shortly after the company graduated and delivered plaques to 30 beneficiaries of its circle 8 Vocational Skill and Training programme under it Entrepreneur Empowerment Project for host communities.
According to him, “We are advocating that transmission should be privatized. Transmission is still owned by Federal Government today. You can’t say you have privatized the power sector when a critical part of the sector is still owned by the government.
“So, it needs to be privatized so that the expertise and the commitment, the diligence that private sector brings into anything can come to play. We know what this plant used to be before Transcorp took it over in 2013. Today we are the leading power generators in Nigeria and it is all product of commitment.
“Everybody has its own areas of specialization; government is to make policies, create the enabling environment and allow the real business people and the experts who understand this business to run them. I think with that we will be able to able to get a robust power system.”
On the Entrepreneurship Empowerment Project, he said it was part of the company’s corporate social responsibility to it’s host communities, adding that the company had succeeded in training 160 persons since inception of the programme, with 88 percent of them established entrepreneurs.
“What we are doing is a manifestation of who we are as Transcorp. We recognize that our host communities are one of the most critical stakeholders that we have and in their success lies our success because our destinies have been tied together by the fact that we doing business in their location,” he stated.
Ezeafulukwe disclosed that the beneficiaries were drawn from the three host communities of the power plant including Eruemukohwarien, Ekakpamre and Ekrerhavwe.
Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa thanked Transcorp Power Limited for assisting the state in providing jobs for its indigenes through the vocational training, pointing out that human capital development through entrepreneurship training has been the focal point of his administration.
In their good will messages, the traditional rulers of Ughievwen and Ughelli kingdoms, HRM, Matthew Ediri Egbi, Owahwa II and HRM Wilson Ojarkovo, Oharisi III respectively, commended the company for living up to it’s social responsibilities to the host communities.
They also used the medium to appeal to them to assist the victims of the recent flood disaster that have seen thousands displaced from their homes.