Jennifer Adighije: Combining Vibrancy and Wisdom to Consolidate NDPHC, by Sanya Adejokun
There is a time and tide for everything under the sun according to Shakespeare. And Solomon said there is time to plant and a time to water what has been planted. At Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Olotu and Ugbo have planted.
It is time for Adighije to water and harvest
On Monday August 26, 2024, Chiedu Ugbo, Ugbo, an electric energy law specialist with over 30 years of extensive experience in electricity industry reform, power project documentation, and privatisation handed over the mantle of leadership of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) to Engineer Jennifer Adighije following the expiration of his second tenure of four years.
Ugbo was first appointed in August 2016 after which President Muhammadu Buhari renewed the tenure for a second and final term. It ended on Friday August 23 and he thereafter handed over to Adighije.
Ugbo was senior special assistant to the president on power privatisation in the office of the vice president (OVP) under the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. He was also the acting head of the advisory power team in the OVP. Before joining the presidency, he was engaged under the USAID Power Africa Transaction and Reform Programme as an embedded adviser to Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), providing legal support in the development of electric power contracts.
Before Ugbo as managing director and chief executive officer of the company was Mr. James Olotu, pioneer, an auditor who worked with the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA). From NEPA, Olotu was seconded to the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) in May 2006 as head of internal audits. Olotu played active roles in the initiation and construction of the ancillary electricity generation, transmission, and distribution projects of NIPP and was subsequently served as pioneer MD/CEO upon for formation of NDPHC.
NIPP was originally designed around seven medium sized gas fired power stations in the gas producing states this was later increased to 10 with the additional three in Kogi, Ogun and Ondo states, and the critical transmission infrastructure needed to evacuate the added power into the national grid. A commitment to electrify host communities in the vicinity of the power stations and major substations gave rise to the distribution component of the project.
In August 2005, the National Council of State and the National Assembly approved an initial funding for NIPP from the excess crude savings account’ (ECSA) which statutorily belong to the Federal, State and Local Governments.
The Federal Government therefore incorporated the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC) as a limited liability company to serve as the legal vehicle to hold the NIPP assets using private sector-orientated best business practices. NDPHC has a current installed capacity of 3,585 MW and contributes over 40 percent of the power requirement in the grid.
The plants include: Benin Generation Company Limited at Ihovba, Edo state, Calabar Generation Company Limited, Cross River state, Geregu Generation Company Limited, Kogi state, Olorunsogo Generation Company Limited, Ogun state, Omotosho Generation Company Limited, Ondo state, Olorunsogo II, Ogorode (Sapele), Delta State, Geregu II, Omotosho II, Ihovbor, Alaoji, Gbarain in Bayelsa State, Omoku, Rivers State, Egbema, Imo State and Alaoji steam.
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With just about three of the plants still under construction, and hundreds of thousands of kilometres of transmission and distribution lines, substations and transformers installed across the length and breath of the country, NDPHC can be said to have entered the stage of consolidation.
Enters the youthful Adighije with academic and practical knowledge and experiences spanning electricity, telecommunications, central banking, politics and governance. She is expected to bring her education and diverse experience to bear especially at a time the federal government is desirous of raising grid electricity generation and distribution to 6,000MW by the end of 2024.
She is a graduate of the University of Lagos with a B.Sc. in electrical and electronics engineering. She later obtained an M.Sc. in wireless networks and telecommunications at Queen Mary University of London, and returned to Nigeria in 2006.
She was born on April 15, 1983, to the Adighije family of Abia state. Her father, Chris Adighije, served as the senator representing Abia central senatorial district under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from 2003 to 2007. Chris defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2016 and is now a chieftain of the ruling party.
Adighije started her career as a transmission maintenance engineer at the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) from where she joined Globacom as Network Switching Subsystem (NSS) specialist, after which she worked with Helios Towers Nig, a telecommunication infrastructure company, as the head of operations and planning.
In 2018, she joined Central bank of Nigeria as a value engineer and cost controller in the procurement department and left in September 2023 when she was appointed as senior special assistant (entrepreneurship development in communications, innovation, and the digital economy) to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
At 41, Adighije is only following in the footsteps of people like Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates when discussions are about people who achieved extraordinary success at a young age. Or even those who became heads of state and governments in their 30s such as Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand at 37, North Korea’s Kim Jong-U at 33; France Emmanuel Macron at 39, Ireland’s Leo Varadkar at 38; Austria’s Sebastian Kurz at 31, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Groysman at 39; Estonia’s Juri Ratas at, 39 etc
While receiving handover notes, Adighije promised to hit the ground running. She told her audience ““Our mandate at NDPHC is clear: to execute and manage national IPP assets optimally. My vision rests on three pillars: optimising asset performance. Number two, optimising our processes to ensure that we can drive organisational and operational efficiency and number three, which happens to be the most critical is to ensure we leverage technology and human capital to drive positive change in the organisation and with our external stakeholders. number three is very crucial to me because our human capital is our greatest asset. Our human capital is the powerhouse to assist in making positive change.
As it is said that the age of Methuselah has no bearing with the age of Solomon, all the apprehension that filled the air when the announcement of her announcement was made has quickly dissipated within the short time that she has been in the saddle. Her calm and friendly mien have restored confidence in the company.
The fashionpreneur, a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) is currently in the second year of her doctoral study at the Catholic University of Murcia, Spain. She got married to Obiora Okolo, a US-based medical doctor, in 2013.
Her hobbies include reading, cooking, and making a social impact. She is a humanitarian, life member of the Rotary Club and social-entrepreneurship advocate. She is a patron of Digi-Tech Empowerment Foundation for Youths, where she dedicates her time and resources to fostering digital inclusion by bridging access gaps for digitally vulnerable youths.
Adejokun is Media Adviser to managing Director of NDPHC
