By Amin Kef (Ranger)
The 1st or Maiden Edition of “NP Zone” was launched on the 25th April, 2023 by the Communications Director of NP (SL) Ltd, Dr Williette James in the presence of Board Members and Management of the company as well as the Press.
NP Zone is the in-house publication by the company designed to tell the petroleum importing and marketing entity’s stories and more especially to enlighten readers about who they are, their offers and what they stand for as a company.
The edition is a colourful magazine that succinctly outlines the origins of the company, how through sheer managerial competence it has grown into becoming the face of Sierra Leone, the petroleum products it offers for sale and how, in varying ways, it is rolling out its corporate social responsibility and how the company’s operations is impacting the nation’s socio-economic development.
In this 1st edition it is established that NP(SL)Ltd is the leading petroleum company in the country and is highly known for being the first in the realm of customer care especially when cognizance is taken of how Management is very keen on optimizing customer satisfaction in its service delivery on different fronts.
Members of the public are informed that staffs of the company are very mindful of the fact that it is the customer that comes first and therefore needs the utmost attention always ensuring that transactions are conducted under a congenial atmosphere that results into a win-win situation.
Stated in the magazine is that an admirable quality that NP-SL Ltd possesses is working tirelessly and effectively using its contacts with oil-producing countries in order to ensure that there is timely purchase and delivery of petroleum products to avoid shortages.
The timely importation of petroleum products, it was mentioned, has earned NP high commendations from various quarters simply because it helps to cushion unrest and other forms of disadvantageous effects one of which is increase in transport fares, increase in the prices of certain commodities maintaining how the pro-activeness of the company invariably has a direct impact on poverty reduction in variable ways.
The story is being told of how Sierra Leonean 35 former employees of the British Petroleum (BP) invested their end of service benefits to purchase shares which were used to establish NP, which today is a success story of an indigenous company, having branches in various parts of the country and in other four West African countries namely Liberia, Guinea, Ivory Coast and The Gambia.
Information is provided on one of the products of the company which is a gas cooker, popularly known as NP Gas, that could be access at the company’s Filling Stations and is said to be environmentally-friendly, safe and long lasting.
A revelation was made of how the company, in line with matching with technology, introduced the use of a Smart Card widely known as NP Smart Card which is a Card with memory chip embedded that can be credited with money and debited when it is used during the purchase of fuel. The holder only slots the loaded card into the space on the pumping machine after commanding the amount of fuel to be pumped and the exact amount is discharged with the card ready for another recharge to be used for the next purchase. It is acknowledged that it is a safe, cashless way of conducting transactions assuring greater security and budgetary adjustments.
When reference being made to the effective implementation of the Local Content Policy, NP-SL Ltd is portrayed as a company that stands tall within that realm as nearly all its members of staff are Sierra Leoneans thereby making use of local talents everywhere they are operating. It was also noted that the Local Content Policy is indeed an engine of growth and NP is making full use of it.
Dwelling on the rolling out of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility, it was mentioned how the entity has undertaken numerous development projects. Projects like the School for the military at Murray Town, the School for Police at Kingtom, the water borehole and storage system project in the Central and Eastern parts of Freetown for the National Fire Force to access water, the building of squash courts in some Secondary Schools and at FBC among others were captured.
From a random survey conducted it came out vividly that many find the maiden edition very enlightening and informative with some stating that its publication will go a long way to promote the company’s visibility while others expressed the view that it will serve as a source of inspiration to establish successful indigenous enterprises that could stand the test of time.
