By Amin Kef Sesay
Established by thirty-five Sierra Leoneans in the wake of privatizing the then Government owned petroleum marketing entity in 1996, based on the advice of the World Bank, the National Petroleum-Sierra Leone Limited (NP-SL Ltd) is a 100% indigenous petroleum importing and marketing business entity that has stood the test of time to today become a leading petroleum importing and marketing company that has been contributing positively to overall national development.
The founding fathers of this sterling business entity out of sheer determination and the unwavering passion to derive success in their business endeavours as set out in their Mission Statement, which over the years, they have strived selflessly and diligently to translate into realities on the ground despite the teething challenges encountered along the way.
NP-SL’s Mission borders on: “maintaining its dominant leadership position in the local market and strive to operate at sub-regional level by assuring the supply of petroleum products in an environmentally friendly manner while offering superior value for their customers, employees and other stakeholders based on a proud corporate culture with emphasis on safety consciousness, profit optimization, corporate expansion thereby contributing to national development”.
Contingent on the company’s Strategic Plans which it has been rolling out over the years, the set out Mission has to a very large extent been comprehensively achieved as a result of shrewd Managerial initiatives that catapulted a business entity from a humble beginning to become a mini multi-national company that has branches in neighbouring Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast and The Gambia.
There is no gainsaying that NP-SL Ltd has really dominated the petroleum landscape of this country. The company has effectively competed with other petroleum marketing entities , some which folded up and others still existing but have been eclipsed by the company as a result of savvy business ideas.
As a matter of fact, for delivering qualitative petroleum products and effective service delivery the company was bestowed the covetous accolade of 1st for Customer Care.
An outstanding characteristic of the company is the premium it places on enhancing safety standards. Management of the company pays great attention to ensure that safety measures are maintained in all its Filling Stations. The ‘Dos’ and ‘Don’t Do’ are conspicuously placed at Filling Stations to always put members of the public, its customers on their guard with a view to avert any form of disaster from taking place. Cautionary tips like, “No Smoking”, “Avoid Naked Flame”, “Switch Off Engine when fuel is pumped”, “Switch Off Your Mobile Phone” etc are seen alongside fire extinguishers at strategic places to be used in emergency cases.
Within the same ambit of enhancing safety, NP-SL Ltd, under rolling out its Corporate Social Responsibility, has on various occasions capacitated the National Fire Force with infrastructure. Against the backdrop of surmounting the constraint of accessing water in the East End of Freetown, NP-SL Ltd decided to construct a water facility for the National Fire Force Kissy Branch. The company facilitated the construction of a state of art bore well and provided a standard standby generator that pumps up the water into the fire engines for onward extinguishing of any fire outbreak. Taking into consideration that the Terminal is located in that part of the country, where petroleum products are discharged and because they are highly inflammable, NP-SL Ltd thought it but fitting to capacitate the National Fire Force branch to quickly respond to fire disasters.
With upholding safety standards given priority, from time to time various training programmes are organized for Station Managers and Pump Attendants in order for them to be au fait with how to respond to emergencies. Just recently, the company certified over 100 of these essential workers in Freetown, in Bo for those in the South East and Makeni for those in the Northern Province after successfully completing trainings of which safety was one of the subject matters that were exhaustively taught. Such trainings give them the requisite skills of handling critical infrastructure of the company as well as how to deal with emergencies.
With regards corporate expansion, NP-SL Ltd has made meaningful inroads in areas where hitherto petroleum products were very difficult to access. Residents of certain communities have to go the extra-miles just to access petroleum products. Over the years the company in partnership with private entrepreneurs has opened Filling Stations in communities which were formerly considered to be hard to reach areas thereby putting an end to Energy Poverty in those places. The attendant advantages of opening these Filling Stations are evident in providing job opportunities and making transportation costs somehow reasonable. Today in every nook and cranny in the country there could be found a NP-SL Ltd Filling Station.
Having a policy of limiting employment opportunities to only nationals of the country where it is operating, the company is indeed deepening preference for Local Content.
Also, offering its customers a service like NP Smart Card which is a card with a memory chip that is credited with money and used to procure fuel based on the amount of money it contains has been widely commended as a cashless form of transaction that is safe and secure.
Besides, the company offers NP Gas which is a cooking gadget that has been environmentally certified as good for domestic use. It is quick and clean, manufactured in different sizes and sold at Filling Stations.
From the foregoing, NP-SL Ltd could be assessed as a serious and forward-looking company as over the years the Mission Statement mapped out by the founding fathers as a roadmap is today largely fulfilled and helping in positively and meaningfully contributing to overall development.
