The Lagos State Government has commended leading Electricity Distribution Company, Ikeja Electric (IE), for its commitment towards improving technical capacity building and empowering youths in the state through the various corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Folashade Adefisayo, gave the commendation at a ceremony organized to officially commission the Electrical Workshop of at Government Technical College (GTC) in Ikorodu, which was upgraded by the DisCo
Speaking at the occasion, the Adefisayo, who was represented at the event by Dr. Olufunke Oyetola, Director of Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics, Lagos State Education Ministry, expressed gratitude to the Disco for contributing towards improving the facility and adding value to the school while encouraging them to partner more with the State.
She commended the exemplary gesture by IE, noting that the impact will definitely be meaningful to the recipients because the quality of learning will improve, thereby enhancing capabilities and potentials of the students for future challenges.
The Education Commissioner said: “It’s a good thing that Ikeja Electric deemed it fit to upgrade the electrical workshop for benefit of the students. On behalf of Lagos State Government, I want to say a big thank you to the Management and Staff of Ikeja Electric. We are looking forward for more of such.”
Similarly, the Executive Secretary of Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board (LASTVEB, Moronike Azeez thanked the Disco. She said the mission of the Board was to provide industry response and gender inclusive technical and vocational education.
According to her, the Board was not only interested in the training of the students but was also engaging technical partners to help create startups and employment opportunities for them. She said the State currently had about 400 partners involved in the exercise, adding that there was need for more private sector support of technical and vocational education in the state
During the presentation of the upgrade facility, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ikeja Electric, Folake Soetan emphasized that the company remains passionate about giving back to communities where it operates. “We care about our customers and we look for every opportunity to support them, through our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) platform, which has touched thousands of lives positively.
” At IE we give back to the societies where we operate. Therefore, in line with our commitment towards education, we decided to rehabilitate the Electrical Workshop at Government Technical College (GTC), Ikorodu, in order to further enhance technical capacity building and create a conducive learning environment for the students,” she explained.
Speaking further, Soetan noted that the philanthropic gesture demonstrated IE’s commitment to the goal of promoting quality education. “There’s no doubt that education is the bedrock of development for any nation. Clearly, when technical skills are encouraged among young people, it helps a nation to develop in terms of technology, economy, manpower, self-sustenance, creation of job and reduction of unemployment.”
Ikeja Electric has been deliberate in its effort to empower youth and develop engineers who are able to compete on global stage. The DisCo has a Young Engineers’ Programme (YEP), a 12-month comprehensive programme designed to improve the capacity of young, dynamic and self-motivated talents in the electrical engineering field. The program which has been running for several years have graduated over 100 engineers.