The Nigerian Rural Electrification Agency Builds Capacity of 180 Young Women For the Power Sector

    LAGOS, NIGERIA, December 04, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Rural Electrification Agency (REA), in its bid towards building the capacity of young women for the power sector, held its first Female Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Workshop under the Energizing Education Programme (EEP). The milestone event took place on November 29, 2019 in Lagos State, Nigeria.

The workshop, organized by the Agency in partnership with leading private sector developers, had in attendance power sector stakeholders and business professionals. The aim was to bring together young women and top power sector and business professionals to share knowledge and discuss the opportunities for women in the industry.

The Energizing Education Programme (EEP) is a Federal Government of Nigeria intervention to provide sustainable and clean power supply to 37 Federal Universities and 7 University Teaching Hospitals across Nigeria. The first phase of the programme creates an avenue for the training of 180 female STEM students during the construction phase of the project, which serves as a catalyst towards ensuring sustainability of the project and building young women for the future in renewable energy. The Managing Director/CEO of REA, Mrs. Damilola Ogunbiyi, in her opening remarks stated that "this workshop is designed to facilitate the increase in leadership and development of professional women. It is also a platform for the 180 female students and professionals present to network, share their knowledge, discuss achievements and encourage the advancement of women across the energy sector."

Delivering the keynote address, the Honourable Minister of State for Power, Mr. Goddy Jedy-Agba mentioned that "gender and social exclusion will soon be a thing of the past. As a government, we are working to ensure that we mitigate the plight of women and promote equality and inclusiveness across all sectors. We cannot hope to reform the power sector without the skills, innovation and expertise of our women. That is why the importance of events like the one we are having today cannot be overemphasized. I, therefore, urge you to take charge of your future and make good use of the platform that has been established for you."

The highlight of the workshop was the Project Shark Tank competition, where female students from the participating universities pitched their innovative projects to a panel of judges. Female STEM students from Bayero University, Kano emerged winners and received the prize of N1,000,000.

ABOUT REA

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) is the Implementing Agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) tasked with electrification of unserved and underserved communities. The Energizing Education Programme (EEP) is an initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria to provide sustainable and clean power supply to 37 Federal Universities and 7 University Teaching Hospitals across Nigeria. The project includes the provision of an independent power plant, upgrading existing distribution infrastructure, street lighting to improve security within the universities' campuses, as well as the development of a world class training centre on renewable energy for each university. The Female STEM Students Internship Programme of the EEP aims to train 20 female STEM students from each university during the construction phase of the project. The programme is being implemented in three phases and funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the World Bank and the African Development Bank respectively.

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