The Honourable Minister of State, Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba, OFR has assured that the National Metre Test Station, Oshodi, Lagos State will be ready for commissioning not later than January, 2022.
Jedy-Agba gave the assurances on Friday during an official inspection tour to the test station and other power facilities belonging to the Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) in Lagos State.
The multi-million naira facility housed metre testing and certification laboratory unit, Metre Museum, staff offices, amongst others.
The Minister who was conducted round the facility by the Acting Managing Director of NEMSA, Engr. Shaubu Usman said that although the place is currently in use, what it’s offering Nigerians is far below its capacity because a few more things need to be put in place to enable it function to full capacity.
He directed NEMSA management to improve the feasibility of the place by sensitizing Nigerians on its activities.
According to him, “this is a very massive facility. This is an asset that should generate funds for government. I know the project is complete but I’ll give NEMSA from now till January to make the necessary arrangements for the official commissioning of the facility”.
He added that, “I want to urge you to increase the public awareness of this facility. Let people get to know what’s happening here and the importance of this place. For now, I don’t think Nigerians know that a huge facility like this is existing”.
Assuring the Minister of the agency’s readiness to meet up the deadline for commissioning, the Acting MD, Engr. Usman said that he will liase with the contractor to ensure that all the necessary things are tidied.
He said that “as you can see, this place is already in use. What’s remaining is to set the reception and then beauify the place. We want to plant some flowers around some locations to make the place look beautiful.
Already, we have been using the facility to test and certify Metres. All Metres that enters Nigeria would first come here for testing and certification”.
While thanking the Minister for the visit, he however lamented that inadequate manpower was a serious challenge that was affecting the effectiveness of the agency.
“This facility like many of our facilities are under-staffed. We don’t have enough manpower and this is affecting us negatively. There are some units here that we don’t have staff to mount them. We hope to address this very soon”, he said.
Other facilities the Minister inspected include, NEMSA warehouse, Oshodi, NEMSA jetty and printing press, Ijora, former Power Holding Company Of Nigeria Staff Hospital, Oshodi, amongst others.
