Foremost philanthropist and banker, Mr. Tony Elumelu and Africa’s richest man Alhaji Aliko Dangote have both hailed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd for their sterling performance under the leadership of its Group Managing Director, Mr. Mele Kyari.
According to Dangote, Africa’s richest man and Chairman of the Dangote Group, by its sterling performance under Mele Kyari, NNPC has shown it has what it takes to become the African version of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco.
For his part, Elumelu, who is Chairman of Heirs Holding, NNPC deserves praise for the effort it has made to curb crude oil theft.
Speaking on Wednesday at the ongoing 2023 Upstream Investment Management Services Ltd (NUIMS) Annual Value Assurance Review (AVAR) Workshop, with theme, ‘Consolidating for Growth in PIA Era.’ Dangote said that the NNPC can generate billions of dollars in revenue if the right decisions are made.
He said the PIA brought the transformation of NNPC from a government establishment to a commercial entity with no recourse to government funding.
Dangote said NUIMS has a critical role to play in unlocking funding to take advantage of the huge opportunities in the sector as well as to actively manage the investments to repay its loans, generate reasonable returns, and fund investment in new opportunities.
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He said: ‘I truly believe that NNPC should be our African Aramco. You have what it takes to take you up there and I am very happy. There is nothing that is impossible. You can make it possible and don’t let anything scare you. It is just the same thing with us. If I tell you about our own story, you will be shocked as to how. It wasn’t only the refinery that we started about six years ago. We had 32 projects that we all rolled out at the same time.
‘But then, on the way we had lots of hitches here and there where the devaluation of the currency, Covid, and challenges of infrastructure set in. If you want to do a real project in Nigeria, you have to look at the infrastructure that we have, because the infrastructure we have is not meant for mega projects.
‘We need to look at our infrastructure and see how we can take ourselves to the next level and it has to be driven by NNPC because they are the largest conglomerate and whatever happens to NNPCL their assets, it actually happens to us either directly or indirectly.’
He said the NNPC needs to roll out massive investments in terms of oil and gas to meet demand, adding that there are many off-takers waiting to invest.
Dangote said a good investment manager actively seeks out investment opportunities, assesses them and takes an investment decision.
While proferring an advise, Dangote said: “Let’s begin with delivering strong returns, which of course is a function of price and cost. While price in your industry is determined by the market and so clearly outside your control, the same cannot be said about cost. More aggressive cost targets need to be adopted and NUIMS staff rewarded with juicy bonuses if they meet these targets.”
Also commending NNPC, Elumelu said due to the efforts of the NNPC Ltd, Heirs Oil & Gas has witnessed 96 per cent recovery rate.