Human capital and the new power industry

A fresh chapter in Nigeria’s power sector opened last weekend with the physical handover of the 14 of the successor companies of the now-defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to the new investors by the Federal Government, marking the conclusion of the privatisation of the assets.

The entry of the private investors is expected to bring about increased demand for skilled persons, especially by the distribution companies, to ensure better service delivery and enhance revenue in their bid to get returns on their investments. Aside from technicians and engineers, who have been identified as potential huge beneficiaries of the vista of employment opportunities resulting from the privatisation of the power sector, other professionals such as accountants and marketers will also be in high demand. The new investors should bring on board accountants and marketing professionals who can help drive their bid to better position the companies and make them healthy, viable and profitable.

Nigeria’s power sector had operated for several decades as a state monopoly, with the Federal Government having the exclusive rights to own electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities. The sector is not only currently characterised by an ageing workforce, it is believed in many quarters that the workforce is also fraught with incompetence, inefficiency and unprofessionalism. This is largely due to lack of structured employment and nepotism in the sector.

At the handover ceremony of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Kola Adesina, chairman of the core investor group, New Electricity Distribution Company/KEPCO, buyers of the Disco stated that it was a new dawn for the industry, adding that it was not going to be business as usual. We believe that there is need for the new investors to carry out a holistic evaluation of the workforce and do the needful to ensure that the companies are staffed with competent and professional people, who will be instrumental to achieving their vision and mission.

To ensure that they always have in place competent human resources, these new private operators in the power industry must commit appropriate resources to training and exposing their staff to best practices in power generation and distribution processes in a competitive market system. It would be counterproductive to accept the old order where people are paid for the services they are not providing or ill-equipped to provide. This could frustrate efforts to revamp the industry and improve power supplies in the country.

The interface between power distribution companies and electricity consumers should be improved. Customers should be valued in this new dispensation and processes put in place to guarantee effective customer relations. This interface can only be properly managed if only these new power companies are marketing oriented dropping the traditional disdain for customers that the old order was known for.

We believe that to enthrone a new order of prudential management, efficiency and responsiveness opportunities should be created along the whole value chain of the power sector for all shades of professionals and consultants. Thus we urge the gencos and discos to take the right steps by engaging the services of those that can really add value to their processes, re-train existing staff that are amenable to new work practices, and create efficient service delivery work ethics.