6,000MW: NDPHC boss named ‘Young Achiever of the Year’ at 2025 Energy Times Awards

Engr. Jennifer Adighije, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), has been named Young Achiever of the Year at the 2025 Energy Times Awards for her outstanding contribution to the goal of generating 6,000 megawatts of power.

The award was presented at a dinner event in Lagos over the weekend, as confirmed in a statement released to The Nation yesterday.

The organisers recognised Adighije for her “unwavering commitment” to achieving the sector-wide target of 6,000 megawatts of power generation to ensure more widespread access to reliable electricity.

Since her appointment in August 2024, Adighije has been instrumental in the restoration of two turbine units that had been offline due to bearing defects. This effort has added an extra 230MW to the national power grid.

Addressing guests at the award ceremony, Adighije expressed her gratitude, acknowledging that the recognition was particularly meaningful given that her management team has been in office for less than a year.

“It’s a very humbling experience for us at NDPHC. As you are aware, we’re a new management. We’ve been in office for less than a year. This is a call to work harder,” she said.

Adighije went on to stress that the new management, under her leadership, is fully focused on scaling power generation. She pointed out that NDPHC is the only agency with a clear mandate to implement interventions across the entire power sector value chain.

“The mandate is very clear to us, which is to scale generation, transmission, and distribution capacity across the power sector. We are the only agency or institution in the power sector with the express mandate to carry out interventions across the entire gas-to-electricity ecosystem. And we’re not losing sight of this,” she remarked.

Other notable winners at the event included Ekiti State Governor Abayomi Oyebanji, named Energy Governor of the Year, and the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who was recognised as Power Sector Personality of the Year. Former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, was awarded Man of the Year, while Farouk Ahmed, Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, took home the Transformational Leader of the Year award. Additionally, Folake Soetan, CEO of Ikeja Electric, was honoured as the Amazon of the Nigerian Power Sector.

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited was named Major Oil Company of the Year, Seplat Energy earned the title of Fastest Growing Indigenous Oil Company of the Year, and Egbin Power was recognised as the Sustainable Development Company of the Year. Other honourees included Heirs Energies (Outstanding Oil Company of the Year) and NNPC spokesman Olufemi Soneye, who received an Award of Excellence.