FG’s ‘power force’ puts youth development at the centre of Presidential metering initiative

By Salami AbdulHakeem

The Federal Government has launched a nationwide skills training programme meant to assist 5,000 young Nigerians with certified technical trades, framing its latest electricity metering push as a youth employment intervention as much as an infrastructure project.

‘Power Force’, a training scheme under the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI), was flagged off at the headquarters of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) in Abuja, where the first batch of selected trainees was unveiled ahead of a three-week intensive course combining classroom instruction with hands-on fieldwork. Officials said the programme drew close to 220,000 applications from young Nigerians nationwide.

The PMI, launched by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023, is targeting the deployment of seven million smart electricity meters to close Nigeria’s metering gap.

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, chairman PMI Board, was represented at the ceremony by Edmund Obiora Nnaji, Executive Director of Finance and Administration at the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. In his address, the governor said the programme’s value went beyond the power sector’s books.

“PMI is not just about fixing the finances of the power sector through metering. It is also about impacting the lives of young Nigerians, through training and skills development,” AbdulRazaq said, urging fellow state governors to back an expansion of the programme “beyond the initial five thousand trainees being targeted.”

Power Minister Joseph Tegbe described the trainees as the future of the sector’s technical workforce. “The 5,000 young Nigerians being trained under this initiative will become the backbone of Nigeria’s smart metering workforce,” he said, adding that the reforms were “equally about creating opportunities, building human capital and securing livelihoods” as they were about equipment and technology.

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Youth Development Minister Ayo Olawande tied Power Force directly to his ministry’s ongoing “One Youth, Two Skills” initiative, positioning the metering programme as an extension of the federal government’s broader youth employment strategy rather than a standalone technical exercise.

“This is not just the launch of a training programme; it is about creating jobs and opportunities for Nigerian youths to contribute to national development,” Olawande said. He credited the collaboration between federal ministries and agencies for extending “the dividends of democracy” to citizens nationwide.

PMI Executive Secretary and Special Adviser to the President on Oil and Gas, Olu Arowolo Verheijen, called Power Force the largest metering programme in Nigeria’s history and framed it in explicitly generational terms.

“One young installer cannot transform Nigeria. But five thousand can inspire fifty thousand. And fifty thousand can inspire millions more. That is how movements begin. One opportunity. One person. One act of service at a time,” Verheijen said.

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Trainees who complete the three-week programme will receive formal certification from the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), qualifying them as meter installers who meet national and international competence and safety standards. Training will next expand from Abuja to centres across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.

Also in attendance were the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Ayo Gbeleyi; NAPTIN Managing Director Ahmed Bolaji Nagode; and NEMSA Managing Director Adesayo Olusegun Michael. Tegbe also used the occasion to commend the Association of Meter Manufacturers of Nigeria (AMMON) for withdrawing a court case against the metering programme, calling the decision a boost to the rollout’s momentum.

Nearly 220,000 applicants chasing 5,000 spots, stand as a testament to the pressure facing Nigeria’s youth job market, one that officials are betting a national metering programme can help ease, one trainee at a time.