Training of 80 Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) Technicians in Nigeria

The African Development Bank (ADB) has within the framework of the Ivory Coast-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea (CLSG) electricity interconnection project, provided a grant of 2.7 million Units of Account (UA) to finance the operational capacity building of the National Electricity Companies of the project beneficiary countries and the General Secretariat of the West African Electric Energy Exchange System (WAPP).

It is within this framework that 80 technical staff of the national electricity company of Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) have started a series of training courses since December 3th 2018 in the training centres of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) in Lagos and Kainji.

The objective of this capacity building programme is to remove all human and material obstacles and constraints that the Liberian entities and actors of the CLSG project may face, in order to ensure the prompt implementation and sustainable operation of the portion of the interconnection line in Liberia.

In addition, these training sessions were carefully prepared by the teams of the WAPP General Secretariat, NAPTIN and LEC who, through the competency gap analysis tools designed the contents of the training modules and made available the appropriate pedagogical tools for each training.

Ongoing training will provide the 80 Liberian beneficiaries with the theoretical and practical knowledge necessary for the planning, operation and maintenance of their electricity system, particularly in the context of an interconnected regional grid. Ten (10) areas of expertise have been identified, namely:

• Basis for the Protection of Power Lines (10)
• Maintenance of electrical transformers and substations (10)
• Operation & Maintenance of Substations (10)
• Challenges of Commercial Electricity Management (6)
• Management of electricity infrastructure projects and financial structuring (6)
• Maintenance of transmission and distribution lines (10)
• Maintenance and repair of electrical distribution networks (3)
• Management of losses of electricity distribution networks (10)
• Design and operation of electricity distribution networks (7)
• Electrical industry management for non-technicians (8)

A total of 13 young women out of 80 trainees participated in these trainings, which lasted two (2) weeks for each session.

It should also be noted that this capacity building programme made it possible to carry out similar training for 80 Guinea Electricity Officers (EDG) in 2017 at the centre for electricity professions in Bingerville, Ivory Coast. In addition, some thirty executives and professionals from the WAPP General Secretariat and the Ivorian Electricity Company (CIE) attended training courses in the Specialized Institutes on electricity network planning, project management and financial structuring, and administrative and human resources management.

In March 2019, Sierra Leone's electricity companies: Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (EGTC) and Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) will in turn benefit from similar training at the Volta River Authority Training Centre in Ghana.