MEDIATRACNET
The Board of Egbin Power Plc has announced the appointment of Mokhtar Bounour as the new Chief Executive Officer for the privately run thermal plant.
The Board in a statement on Tuesday said Bounour’s appointment would accelerate Egbin’s ongoing transformation and propel the company’s energy mix transition towards enhanced environmental sustainability.
Egbin, which is a Sahara Power Group Company, is reputed to be one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest thermal power plant with the capacity generate electricity to feed over 20 million homes and businesses.
Since its acquisition in 2013, the turnaround of the plant has trebled its power generation capacity to almost 1000 megawatts (MW) from a threshold of about 300 MW, following fresh investments in overhauls, technology and human capital.
The company said the company has also achieved about 670,000 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions eliminated by reducing fossil energy consumption, achieved about 14.1 percent reduction in energy intensity of electrical energy, and over 1000 trees planted to safeguard the environment.
With an installed capacity of about 1320MW, the company said its plan was to expand Egbin’s power generation capacity using a mix of alternative clean energy sources.
The Group Managing Director, Sahara Power Group. Kola Adesina, expressed delight in the appointment of Mokhtar to join in the effort to sustain the company’s continuing transformation programme and its commitment to bringing more energy to life responsibly.
Adesina said Bounour would also lead plant optimisation strategies and spearhead the company’s Emissions Reduction and Resource Efficiency targets.
Bounour said he was delighted with his appointment, describing it as an opportunity to steer the future of the “iconic African power plant”.
He said his interactions with the Board indicated that “the future holds a firm promise of unparalleled growth and sustained world-class performance in Egbin.”
Bounour holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering; a Masters Degree in Management and Leadership, Business Administration and International Relations.
He has worked previously in Europe for the better part of his career, and prior to joining Egbin Power Plc, Bounour led Fertiberia Spain as CEO of Fertial and thereafter, became Business Development Director for Africa, Middle East and Turkey.
With 24 years of experience across Africa, Europe and Middle-East, Bounour has led multi-functional teams in EPC construction, Operations and Maintenance, Power generation and Fertilizers plants.
He is multilingual, being fluent in French, English and Spanish – an attribute that is expected to further propel diversity at Egbin Power which has employees from different nationalities.
His experience cuts across setting strategic direction for revamping, rehabilitation and management of change, contracts management, formulation, integration and auditing, with implementation of effective customer coordination.
Other qualities include, sales, business development projects, engineering and turn over acceptance policies, procedures and systems management for organizations.
Egbin’s clean energy commitment manifests in several decarbonising projects, including enabling its employees to contribute to carbon-emission reduction through daily commuting on the company’s electric buggies, bicycles and scooters, leaving employees healthier and the environment cleaner.
