NNPC GMD Tasks Business Develop Directorate on Value-Creating Ideas

To further consolidate on the gains of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Transformation process which was initiated to reposition the Corporation for the post-PIB era, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Engr. Andrew Yakubu, has challenged the Corporation’s Business Development Directorate to evolve innovative and proactive strategies for identifying new business opportunities that could capture and create value for the Corporation.
Engr. Yakubu gave this charge at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop with the theme: “Value Creation: An Optimum to Business Development” organized by the Business Development Directorate of NNPC to brainstorm, build the capacity of staff, and chart a way forward for the Directorate which held recently at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
The NNPC boss who pledged utmost support to the Directorate on account of its strategic importance as the engine room of creative business ideas that could sustain and propel the Corporation to higher heights, urged the Directorate to wake up to its responsibilities.
“The time to take your mandate more seriously is now… For NNPC to realize its vision of becoming a world class oil and gas company in line with our transformation roadmap which includes the right to play on the global scene, a strong business development capability must be a top and strategic priority,” Yakubu stated.
The GMD noted that the evolving business environment in the international energy scene with regard to the development of shale gas in the United States of America as well as the increasing competition from traditional oil producers like Angola and new oil producers like Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and others present challenges that should propel the Business Development Directorate to lead the charge in developing strategies for NNPC to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the changes.
He urged the Directorate to “build the necessary capabilities and skills and seek collaboration from within and outside the NNPC business ecosystem” in order to fulfill its mandate.
Engr. Yakubu also called for a high-level cooperation and interaction between the Business Development Directorate and other Directorates in order to achieve synergy and unity of purpose in the process of exploring new business opportunities, adding that: “While the Business Development Directorate must take leading roles in identifying opportunities for the organization, a shared-value strategy must underpin our growth aspirations”.
Speaking earlier in her welcome address, the Group Executive Director, Business Development Directorate of the NNPC, Ms. Aisha Abdurrahman, stated that it was her concern about the sub-optimal level of activities in the Directorate that inspired her to organize the workshop to generate ideas and chat a roadmap for actualizing the Directorate’s mandate.
She listed the core functions of the Directorate to include generating and developing business opportunities; optimizing existing assets; executing downstream obligation projects for Production Sharing Contracts (PSC); and ensuring that NNPC’s activities are in compliance with extant laws and regulations.