The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has awarded the Quality Management System (QMS) ISO 9001:2015 Certificate to the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA).
At the certificate presentation in Abuja on Wednesday, the Managing Director of NEMSA, Engr. Peter Ewesor, said to align with world best practices, NEMSA began enforcement of technical standards and testing of meters and other equipment in the power sector.
He said this has translated to quality services for customers including power operators and power users.
Ewesor said the management of NEMSA subjected its activities to the ISO certification which only SON has the mandate to award just to deepen its mission.
“With the QMS 9001:2015, NEMSA has become a new agency of the Federal Government and NEMSA has become the first to actually acquire this certification in the power sector,” he noted.
60 workers participated in the QMS Implementation Training Course by SON. From the figure, 47 were trained as QMS internal auditors in 2019 and were certified as auditors.
The MD of the agency said the impact of the certification includes the ability to specify quality by planning, checking and acting when enforcing standards in the sector.
He said towards the certification, NEMSA engaged a consultant, Messrs Mfon Bankong in 2019 while the QMS initiative itself began in 2017.
Six most hardworking staff of Nemsa also got awards: three people won across Grade Level 8-13; two were on GL14 above, while one on grade seven emerged winner.
The QMS ISO9001:2015 certificate is valid from March 2020 to March 2023, the certificate showed.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry of power, Chinyeaka Christian Ohaa, said the present administration is desirous of ensuring that every citizen, community and businesses will have quantitative and qualitative power supply.
“I wish the people who have gotten their certificates and move on to do the right thing.”
The Director General of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, said 1.500 million businesses obtained the certificate globally as of September 2020 with over 600 of them in Nigeria including NEMSA.
Salim who was represented by the Director, Management Systems Certification Services, Engr. Felix Nyado, said a survey shows that 86 per cent of those who adopted the certification standard said it helped them quickly meet up with customer services which attracts another 65 percent of new customers.
“By this achievement the agency (NEMSA) has joined QMS certified organizations seeking service improvement in Nigeria.”
He urged NEMSA to step up standards especially at a time when more power accidents are reported and the use of substandard materials in the power sector. He also lauded NEMSA for having 46 of its staff join the 400 QMS auditors nationwide.
