Nigeria approves installation of solar power in ASCON

The Nigerian Government has approved the installation of two kilowatts of solar power at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Badagry, to improve the power supply at the institute.

Mrs Cecilia Gayya, Director-General of the college, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Badagry.

She said the Ministry of Power had communicated the approval of the project by President Muhammadu Buhari to the college after a request was made by the institute.

“The request is to provide the two kilowatts of solar alternative power to the college.

“So, the officials of the ministry have come here to survey the college and are awaiting the release of the funds from this year to start work,” she said.

Gayya said solar power would be provided under the government’s Rural Alternative Electrification Scheme.

The D-G complained that power outages had been a major challenge to the smooth running of the college, despite existing two generators serving as an alternative source of power.

“Sometimes, we spent every kobo that our clients paid for their programme to buy diesel to run the generators and it would still not serve,” she said.

Gayya said the increase in the price of diesel had further affected efforts at improving the electricity supply at the college.

She lamented that it had not been easy running the college owing to the paucity of funds.

She said she became the D-G of the college, the institution had not received enough money from the government to meet its needs

“At the beginning of my tenure, we had a situation where the college had to take care of its own needs by its own efforts.

“In 2011 and 2012, the college was getting N3 million monthly for its overhead expenses,but by the time I took over, the college was getting N8 million, so how do you compare it?

“So for us, my tenure has been challenged by the paucity of funds from the side of government.

“It was just in 2021 that we got N11 million from the government 12 times.

“In previous years, N8 million came like seven times in a year, then the remaining five times, we had to sort ourselves out,” she said.

Gayya, however, said that she was proud the college had been surviving despite the paucity of funds and other challenges.

She said ASCON remain the foremost management development institute in the country and the management was committed to making it better. (NAN)