The Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) has commenced the various certification programmes it offers in various aspects of technical and electrical activities under its mandate.
NEMSA is the government agency mandated by the provisions of the NEMSA Act, 2015 to enforce compliance by all operators in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), making it mandatory for statutory inspection, testing, and certification of all projects in the electricity sector in the country.
In a public notice issued recently, the agency said it invited qualified individual electrical professionals to apply for the certification schemes available in Nigeria- Electricity Metering Installation Personnel Certification, Electrical Installation Contractors’ Certification, Renewable Energy Installation Personnel Certification and Electrical Technical Personnel Certification respectively.
Consequently, it called for applications from interested persons to enrol in the programmes.
The Certification programmes are meant to ensure that only skilled, experienced and competent electrical installation personnel and corporate organisations with the right technical capability duly tested and certified by NEMSA are allowed to carry out electrical installation works along the power value chain and utilisation in the country in line with the provisions of the NEMSA Act, 2015
The Certification of Electricity Metering Installation Contractors categorised into Individual and Corporate include certification of electricity metering installation personnel (Category 1) and certification of electricity metering installation personnel (Category 2).
The Corporate and Individual NEMSA Electricity Metering Installation Personnel Certification is for registered businesses or limited liability companies required by law to engage the services of certified electricity metering installation personnels.
Under Category 1, companies must have at least five certified Category 1 Electricity Metering Installation Personnel and 10 certified Category 2 Electricity Metering Installation Personnel in its workforce, while for Category 2, a company must have at least 10 certified Electricity Metering Installation Personnel in its workforce.
The individual certification, categorised into two, is designed for technical personnel practising electricity metering installation works.
The first category is for engineers/technologists, while Category 2 is for technicians and artisans.
Also, the renewable energy installation contractors (electricity generation) are categorised into individual and corporate certification.
In the public notice, NEMSA said it granted a six months extension timeline, starting from the date of the publication, for corporate entities participating in the National Mass Metering Program (NMMP) and Meter Asset Providers (MAP) to comply with the directive for them to obtain the Metering Personnel Certification.
