The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Thursday, said within the next 90 days, Nigerians would be able to know the actual volume of crude oil produced in the country, and the actual quantity of petroleum products imported into Nigeria.
The actual volume of crude oil produced and the volume of petroleum products consumed in the country had been a source of controversy over the last couple of months.
Before 2015, Nigeria’s fuel consumption was put at an average of 35 million litres per day, but today, the NNPC said it was averaging 55 million litres daily and this claim has been largely unverified.
Speaking at a plenary session during the just concluded Annual National Conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management, CIPM, in Abuja, Managing Director of the NNPC’s downstream subsidiary, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, Mr. Bala Wunti, said the PPMC, alongside its parent company, had commission a team of young individuals to deal with issues surrounding such data in the petroleum industry.
According to him, the team, which is part of the recently inaugurated ‘Operation White’, has been saddled with the responsibility of creating real-time solutions to data gathering and other challenges which have negatively impacted the finance and image of the NNPC and its subsidiaries.
He highlighted the fact that over the years, Nigeria had relied on several sources for data which could not be validated.
Wunti noted that at present, the NNPC has adopted the use of disruptive technology through the engagement of young professionals to address the issue.
He said: “We are now getting data that is really improving both our top and bottom line. We are getting the data that we need on a real time basis. These are things that we think we cannot do. We have created a laboratory for the young people in that team to practice what they have passion for.
“We believe that in the next 90 days, we should come out to take accountability for what we produce, what we are dispensing and what we are consuming so that people can use it for planning, unlike before that we had to rely on several approaches of capturing that data which we cannot validate. Today, that approach is going to change.”
Wunti further stated that it was high time the government started utilising data in its quest towards developing the country, and called on business leaders to provide appropriate platform to create a smooth transition for the younger generations in area of leadership.
Also speaking, Mr. Jordi Borrut Bel, Managing Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc, noted that the younger generation of the country’s workforce was creating disruptions in the economy through innovative products and processes.
Bel, who was represented by the Sales Director of Nigerian Breweries, Mr. Uche Unuigwe, disclosed that such disruptions were triggered by customers’ needs and regulations, adding that these had helped in no small measure in ensuring that companies in the fast moving consumer goods sector scaled up their production, among others.
He explained that the driving process of the disruption and innovation processes was the customers which, according to him, is the centre of Nigerian Breweries’ strategy.
