Eko Electricity Distribution Company has recently launched a safety college scheme, which aims to raise employee awareness of the safe implementation of their tasks and improve the overall safety culture within the organisation.
This was made known in a statement signed by EKEDC’s General Manager of Corporate Communications and Strategy, Babatunde Lasaki, who revealed that the scheme was planned as training courses targeted at educating a minimum of 90 per cent of the operations team members (linesmen, lines mate, cable jointers, etc.) before the end of the year.
He said, “Over the years we realised that the majority of accidents caused within our network are due to a knowledge deficiency and procedural breach in our current operations which reiterates the need for retraining of all the operational staff in batches through the initiative”.
According to Lasaki, 1100 personnel will be trained in Standard Protection Code, HSE, and Security Modules in 10 batches of 110 participants per batch, which would form part of personnel appraisal for the year and feed into the scorecard provision of the Human Resources department.
He further revealed that the programme began during the recently concluded World Day for Safety and Health at Work and would be intensified and run continuously as part of the training modules for the staff every year to highlight the importance of safe practice as well as instil and deepen HSE culture among staff members.
Lasaki said, “We believe the initiative would facilitate the desired level of ownership, engagement and participation that was required to reduce and eliminate accidents and sustain the HSE Management System.”
When asked about the recent story of the electrocution of two EKEDC staff reported by the police, Lasaki described it as an unfortunate situation and assured the public that the families of the deceased had been engaged and steps were being taken to provide succour to the family of the deceased.
He said, “We sympathise with the families of the deceased and are currently engaging them. The cause of the accident does not change the fact that lives were lost, and this is what we are eager to address with the safety college.”
