Coscharis President Maduka, MBA students of LBS in robust entrepreneurship session

President of Coscharis Group, Dr. Cosmas Maduka, recently hosted some MBA students of the Lagos Business School (LBS) at the company’s corporate headquarters in Lagos.

The visiting LBS team comprising faculty heads and students had a robust session with their host on leadership and entrepreneurship.

A statement by Abiona Babarinde, General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Coscharis Group, said Maduka shared several life experiences as an established entrepreneur starting from ground zero as an apprentice with his uncle to what he was able to become today in the business world.

Maduka was quoted as saying, “I was able to turn all the challenges that came my way when I lost my father as a young boy to opportunities to not only survive but to excel in all the things I laid my hands on.

“One of the greatest assets given to me to succeed in life was from my mother who told me that no one can say no to me which became like my watchword to success in life.”

The statement added that the robust engagement between Dr. Maduka and the LBS team highlighted amongst other scenarios as case studies how he built the Coscharis Empire with raw determination to be successful despite all odds including his limited educational background.

He said he remained focused on his set goals to succeed with strict timelines.

According to him, building a successful business must be a deliberate act to practise what you preach as a purposeful leader including keeping to commitments and promise to build integrity that earns respect without demanding it in all ramifications of a business life.

Leader of the LBS team, Dr. Henrietta Onwuegbuzie, who is the Faculty and GNAM Academic Director, Lagos Business School, thanked Dr. Maduka and the entire Coscharis team for accepting to host this set of MBA students to have a first-hand practical experience sharing session with a renown and established successful entrepreneur like him.

She said, “It was really mind-blowing to have a first-hand practical experience sharing moments with the master himself. “This session clearly added valuable and practical perspectives in complementing case studies thought in the classroom to the students’ understanding of leadership and entrepreneurship in building a successful business.”

One of the major highlights of the visit was a guided tour of the Coscharis facilities conducted by Abiona Babarinde, the General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Communications for Coscharis Group, across the state-of-the-art showrooms, featuring globally respected automobile brands such as Jaguar LandRover, BMW, Ineos Grenadier, Renault, Ford, and Geely.

Also shown was the fully equipped aftersales workshops across the brands and its ultra-modern Vehicle Assembly Plant.

All these reflected the Group’s continued investment in automotive innovation and industrial advancement in order to remain timeless in its relevance.

This engagement highlighted Coscharis Group’s unwavering commitment to operational excellence, local capacity building, and knowledge sharing. It also provided the LBS MBAs community with a practical understanding of the strategic vision and business practices that have positioned Coscharis as a trusted name in the Nigerian and West African business landscape.

NNPCL may sell Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna refineries – Ojulari

The group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Bayo Ojulari, has hinted on the possibility of selling the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries.

The NNPC disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the 9th OPEC international seminar in Vienna, Austria.

He said: “So refineries, we made quite a lot of investment over the last several years and brought in a lot of technologies. We’ve been challenged.

“Some of those technologies have not worked as we expected so far. But also, as you know, when you’re refining a very old refinery that has been abandoned for some time, what we’re finding is that it’s becoming a little bit more complicated.

“So we’re reviewing all our refinery strategies now. We hope before the end of the year, we’ll be able to conclude that review. That review may lead to us doing things slightly differently. But what we’re saying is that sale is not out of the question. All the options are on the table, to be frank, but that decision will be based on the outcome of the reviews we’re doing now.”

Ojulari also said the operating cost of oil production in Nigeria ranges between $20 and $30 per barrel.

“For the cost of crude production, there’s a capital cost and there are the operating costs,” he said.

“The operating cost right now in Nigeria is hovering over $20 per barrel, which is quite high.

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“Part of that is because of the investment we’ve had to make in terms of security of our pipelines, which as you know, today we have 100 percent availability of our pipelines. That came out of significant investment.

“So we believe with time, with stability, that cost will start going down, but for now it’s somewhere between $25 and $30 a barrel.”

Ojulari added that by the end of the year, the country plans to increase oil output to 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd).

President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote,   had on Thursday expressed skepticism  about the refineries working again.

The business mogul disclosed this while hosting members of the Global CEO Africa from the Lagos Business School, after a tour of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos.

The billionaire said more than 50 percent of his refinery’s production — which was built after late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration blocked his bid to buy state refineries — now goes to petrol.

“The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 percent of PMS. We bought the refineries in January 2007. Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government,” he said.

“And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’Adua that the refineries would work.

“They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so. And as of today, they have spent about $18 billion on those refineries, and they are still not working. I don’t think and I doubt very much if they will work.”

Dangote emphasised that the turnaround maintenance of the refineries “is like you trying to modernise a car that was built 40 years ago, when technology and everything have changed”.

“Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine,” he said.

The NNPC had on November 26, 2024,  announced that  the Port Harcourt refinery had officially commenced crude oil processing, but the refinery shut down in May for maintenance.

The national oil firm said the Warri and Kaduna refineries were still undergoing rehabilitation.

The federal government approved $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers state in March 2021.

NNPCL may sell Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna refineries – Ojulari

NNPC refineries may never work again – Dangote

The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has expressed deep skepticism over the possibility of Nigeria’s state-run refineries — located in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna — ever becoming operational again.

Speaking on Thursday during a visit by members of the Global CEO Africa delegation from the Lagos Business School to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, the billionaire industrialist criticized the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) for failing to get the refineries working, despite significant financial investments.

According to Dangote, the government-run refineries have consumed approximately $18 billion with no tangible output. In contrast, he noted that his privately built 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery allocates more than half its capacity to producing Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), unlike the government-owned refineries which only managed about 22 per cent.

Dangote recounted the failed attempt to privatise the facilities during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which was reversed under the leadership of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

“The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 per cent of PMS. We bought the refineries in January 2007. Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government,” he said.

“And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’adua that the refineries would work. They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so. And as of today, they have spent about $18bn on those refineries, and they are still not working. And I don’t think, and I doubt very much if they will work,” he added.

He likened the ongoing efforts to revive the outdated refineries to attempting to modernize a decades-old automobile with new technology.
“(The turnaround maintenance) is like you trying to modernise a car that was built 40 years ago, when technology and everything have changed. Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine,” Dangote explained.

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His comments reinforce earlier criticisms from former President Obasanjo, who last year also questioned the viability of the refineries. Obasanjo had said the NNPC lacked the capacity to operate them and recalled how even international oil giants, such as Shell, declined his request to take over the facilities.

“I ran to him (Yar’Adua), I said, ‘You know this is not right’. He said, ‘Well, NNPC said they can do it.’ I said, ‘NNPC cannot do it,’ I told my successor that ‘the refineries, from what I heard and know, will not work and when you want to sell them, you will not get anybody to buy them at $200m as scrap’. And that is the situation we are in,” Obasanjo said.

“So, why do we do this kind of thing to ourselves? NNPC knew that they could not do it, but they knew they could eat and carry on with the corruption that was going on in NNPC. When people were there to do it, they put pressure. In a civilised society, those people should be in jail,” he added.

Reiterating his stance earlier this year, Obasanjo said: “I was told not too long ago that since that time, more than $2bn have been squandered on the refineries and they still will not work.

“If a company like Shell tells me what they told me, I will believe them. If anybody tells you now that it (the refinery) is working, why are they now with Aliko (Dangote)? And Aliko will make his refinery work; not only make it work, he will make it deliver.”
He concluded with a Yoruba proverb, drawing a comparison between overstated promises and reality: “They say that after he has harvested 100 heaps of yams, he will also have 100 heaps of lies. You know what that means.”

Pressure has mounted in recent months for the Federal Government to privatise the NNPC-managed refineries, following repeated breakdowns despite official claims of their revival. The Port Harcourt facility, which reportedly resumed operations late last year, was shut down again within six months. Similarly, the Warri refinery ceased operations just one month after being declared functional in December by former NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari.

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and several stakeholders in the energy sector have described the refineries as a financial burden and called for their sale. Some crude oil refiners have even recommended selling them as scrap and redirecting the proceeds to support modular refinery projects.

Despite recurring allocations of public funds, the refineries remain inactive. In 2021 alone, the government approved $1.4 billion for Port Harcourt’s rehabilitation, $897 million for Warri, and $586 million for Kaduna. That same year, N100 billion was spent on refinery maintenance, with a monthly expenditure of N8.33 billion. Additionally, $396.33 million was allocated to turnaround maintenance efforts between 2013 and 2017.

NNPC refineries may never work again – Dangote

(PUNCH)