EKEDC launches safety college, deepens employee safety awareness, plans succour for families of staff lost to electrocution
Oredola Adeola
Eko Electricity Distribution Company has launched a safety college scheme which aims to raise employee awareness on the safe implementation of their tasks as well as improving their overall safety culture within the organization, as it assured commitment to providing succour and reliefs to families of two staff who died after being electrocuted.
Babatunde Lasaki, EKEDC General Manager Corporate Communications and Strategy, made this known in a statement obtained by EnergyDay on Tuesday.
Speaking about the recent story of electrocution of two EKEDC staff reported by the police, Mr. Lasaki described that incident as an unfortunate situation and assured the public that the families of the deceased have been engaged.
He added that the EKEDC has commenced all necessary steps to provide succour to the family of the deceased.
Lasaki said, “We sympathize with the families of the deceased and are currently engaging them. The cause of the accident does not change the fact that lives were lost, and this is what we are eager to address with the safety college.”
The EKEDC’s spokesperson, earlier in the statement revealed that the scheme is planned as training courses targeted at educating a minimum of 90% of the operations team members (lines men, lines mate, cable jointers etc.) before the end of the year.
He said, “Over the years we realized that the majority of accidents caused within our network are due to a knowledge deficiency and procedural breach in our current operations which showed the need for retraining of all the operational staff in batches through the initiative”.
According to Lasaki, a total of 1100 personnel will be trained in Standard Protection Code, HSE, and Security Modules in 10 batches of 110 participants per batch, which shall form part of personnel appraisal for the year and feed into the scorecard provision of the Human Resource department.
Lasaki further revealed that the program began during the recently concluded World Day for Safety and Health at Work and will be intensified and run continuously as part of the training modules for the staff every year to highlight the importance of safety practice as well as instill and deepen HSE culture among the staff.
He said, “We believe the initiative will facilitate the desired level of ownership, engagements and participation that is required to reduce/eliminate accidents and sustain the HSE Management System.”
