The Kebbi State Governor, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has disclosed that the Kebbi State government will work with the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) in promotion of rural electrification and agricultural development in order to create wealth and job opportunities at the state level.
Speaking while on an inspection tour of NASENI facilities in Abuja, Governor Bagudu said “using indigenous skills and equipment, having inspected the technology facilities of NASENI, I believe that in Nigeria we have potential but we need the political will to unbundle our potential and if we utilize what we have we will go a long way without necessarily depend on imported capital goods”.
Speaking on NASENI’s intervention in the areas of partnership; energy and agriculture, the Executive Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive of NASENI, Engr. Prof. Mohammed Sani Haruna, said the Agency is the only government institution in the whole of West Africa to have established a Solar Panel manufacturing plant for the production of solar panels and has also developed small hydro power plant to be installed in towns and villages across the country for the generation of electricity as well as numerous agricultural equipment aimed at economic development.
Prof.Haruna explained that, “Kebbi State like other states in Nigeria needs rural electrification, they need solar energy, and they all have rivers that are good for the installation of NASENI small hydro turbines. We are producing and manufacturing these equipment and machines, these things are needed to support the energy supply in the states. We have produced some agricultural implements, some processing machines for agriculture, equipment etc. All these potentials are targeted at supporting the states in real time development efforts”.
“NASENI not only will install the machines, but will train the people on how to participate in their use including how the youths could be gainfully employed by developing vocational skills around the technologies and associated services in states as provided by NASENI”.
According to NASENI boss, the Jigawa state government also had keyed into similar areas of interventions in the state. “They have existing infrastructure that require local participation and that is what we are doing, they have some machines that we are participating in carrying out repairs on, they have some street lights that we are converting to solar.
The kebbi State Governor said, “We will patronize NASENI as we wish to benefit from them in many ways. We are also considering patronizing them in the agricultural machineries, those that had already been developed particularly threshers for rice processing. I believe a lot will be done”.
He noted that “the federal Government has competent hands in the power sector; It is just that every challenge is unique in its own way. The Federal Ministry of Power can be put to challenge although the challenges facing the nation is enormous. What is important is for the usage of all electricity generation or distribution, including manufactures also in transmission resources should be deployed in order to appreciate always that everyone can contribute in his own way”, he affirmed.