The Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission has announced the admission of Kaduna, Nasarawa, Taraba and Gombe into the membership of the Commission.
The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Abubakar Yelwa, disclosed this at a 5-day capacity building workshop on social standards executive short course held in Kaduna on Monday.
The workshop was themed: ‘social standard knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for effective community engagement and sustainable rural development.’
It was organised by the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi’s Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Centre of Excellence, for 86 executive participants drawn from member states.
According to the HYPPADEC boss, the admission of the states into the membership of the commission followed President Bola Tinubu signing into law the New Electricity Act recently passed by the National Assembly.
He noted that with the additional four states, the commission now had 10 member states made up of over one thousand and eight hundred (1,800) communities, spread across Benue, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, and Plateau States.
He recalled that the establishment of the commission was entirely against the background of the devastation of the communities of member states due to the negative effects of the operations of hydro dams in which many lives and property were damaged.
“I am very pleased to inform you that the National Assembly has recently passed the New Electricity Act, which was signed into law by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“With the enactment of this new Act, four more States of Kaduna, Gombe, Nasarawa and Taraba have been admitted into membership of the Commission. The Commission
now has ten (10) member states,” he said.
Yelwa also explained that the objective of the training workshop was to enhance participants’ skills and knowledge of the global best practices for community engagement with a view to promoting efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery.
This was just as he announced the management decision to create a new Agricultural Division in the Directorate of Community, noting that the development was a significant increase in the scope of work and responsibility for the Directorate which he described as the backbone of the commission.
He said, “It is considering the track record of the Directorate in facilitating the activities of the Commission and the significant increase in the scope of the Commission’s responsibility that makes the Management of the Commission invest in this capacity-building workshop for the officers of this strategic Directorate.
“I had the opportunity of perusing through the modules of the short courses to be treated in the next 5 days. I believe these courses align with a variety of the programmes of the Directorate of Community and Rural Development and by extension, the entire Commission.
“While I look forward to these promising sessions, I want to reiterate that the Management is expecting all staff nominated for this training to effectively utilise this opportunity to improve service delivery. We hope to see clear improvements once you are back in the office.”
