For pupils of Zaria Community School in Jaja, Kaduna, learning on bare floors and crowded benches is now a thing of the past.
On Wednesday, October 7, 2026, contractors working on the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s NTEP-TS1 Lot 1 project, financed by the African Development Bank, donated new desks and chairs to the school.
The furniture, delivered as part of the project’s commitment to its host community, immediately changed the atmosphere in the classrooms.
Excited pupils eagerly took their seats, running their hands over the polished desks as teachers and community leaders watched.
Speaking during the handover, the Principal Manager of the Project Management Team, Kaduna Sub-Region, Engr. Onaga Jacob Ugochukwu, said the gesture was more than an act of corporate social responsibility.
“When we build transmission lines, we are building for the community. When we equip their classrooms, we are building the community itself,” he said. “A child who learns in comfort learns better, and that child may become the engineer who maintains these lines tomorrow.”
For the District Head of Jaja, Alhaji Abdullahi Muhammed, the donation demonstrated the value of genuine partnership.
“This is what partnership looks like,” he said. “TCN and AfDB, through the contractors, did not just pass through our land with towers and lines. They remembered our children.”
He pledged the community’s continued cooperation and protection of the project’s infrastructure and facilities.
Also present at the handover were the Principal Manager, Health, Safety and Environment, Ahmed Rufai Sani, and Senior Manager, Engr. Afeez Kareem, both of the Project Implementation Unit at TCN’s Corporate Headquarters.
In Jaja, the message is clear: transmission expansion is not only about moving electricity across the country. It is also about investing in the people and communities that make progress possible.