Benin Electricity Distribution Plc (BEDC) recently graduated 116 trainees under the maiden edition of its Graduate Trainee Programme (GTP) with a declaration that it would provide competent trainees that would satisfy electricity customers’ yearnings in the area of service delivery and management of relationship with customers.
Managing Director/CEO, BEDC, Mrs. Funke Osibodu made the declaration during the graduation ceremony of the Vigeo Power Academy/ Elizade University (GTP) held at Best Western Hotel, Benin.
BEDC, she averred, believes that the training of the workforce in the industry would improve the performance of the company and ultimately build capacity in the newly growing power sector.
According to her, the initiative which is regarded as the first ever in the electricity supply industry would be replicated with a view to further enhance the ability of BEDC to meet customer needs.
‘’It is also essentially a part of overall corporate strategy to be an industry leader to enable us chart a course of higher productivity that will eventually lead to a more prosperous Nigeria’’ remarked the MD who was represented by the Executive Director, Commercial, Dr. Abu Ejoor.
BEDC she said, was the first distribution company (DisCo) to turn out a set of management trainees who were ‘’well rounded, knowledgeable and fit to lead the revolution required to achieve the core objective of the privatization programme of the Federal Government’’.
‘’Today’s event is the product of a partnership that works for the development of critical resource of human capital between Vigeo Power Academy, the core investor in BEDC, and Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo state, our partners’’ she added.
Speaking at the occasion, the Vice-Chancellor, Elizade University, Prof Oloyede Adekunle said the trainees consisting of three batches of graduates of Engineering, Accounts, Statistics and Mathematics among others, exhibited exemplary conduct during the duration of their training at the university campus.
He remarked that the partnership with BEDC provided visibility to the university adding that the initiative could be extended to other DisCos with the university serving as venue for such training.
The graduate trainees were made to undergo a rigorous one year on-the-job training and also had commensurate exposure to formal academic training at Elizade University, based on the partnership arrangement aimed at giving them robust end-to-end knowledge on the entire gamut of BEDC operations.
One of the trainees, Chibuzor Ugbo, said the training afforded her and her colleagues the opportunity of applying the knowledge taught in the university to power sector business, adding that it was a good experience for any business.