Nkechi Obi, a distinguished member of the Order of the Niger (MON), is the Executive Vice-Chairman of Techno Oil Ltd, Nigeria’s foremost Oil and Gas Company. Obi is a visionary and astute business woman, who presides over the Techno Oil Group, a diversified conglomerate with subsidiaries and interests, spanning across oil and gas, aviation, power, real estate and banking.
Techno oil business activities involve manufacturing, storing and marketing of refined petroleum products and providing high quality value-added services to the retail, commercial and industrial sectors of the Nigerian economy such as Marine, Construction, Aviation, Automotive, Energy and other highly specialized sectors.
The business which was founded more than a decade ago from a humble beginning, is today one of the leading indigenous business conglomerates with operations in key sectors of the economy, generating employment and making significant contributions to nation building.
Nkechi holds a B.Sc. in Economics and she is an alumna of the prestigious Lagos and Harvard Business Schools. She is an expert in strategy and business development with experience spanning over 25 years in the petroleum industry.
Obi has had a distinguished career in ExxonMobil, where she received many commendations and awards to show for her performance. She left ExxonMobil to venture into private business.
Nkechi’s NYSC year was spent at Mobil. Following this she got retained in a permanent position as an export assistant in the sales department. “My role was the coordination of petroleum products export to neighbouring West African countries. After three years, I was appointed Pricing/Investment Officer. The role which entailed advising management on market trends and opportunities, enabled me acquire various technical and analytical skills.”
One remarkable training which Nkechi had that propelled her upwards was “Basic Lubricant training”. The one month residential training was very intensive. It was meant for Engineers, which she was not. “I gained a lot from this training but was later demotivated because women were not assigned jobs as Lubes Marketing Representatives in Mobil, so I couldn’t practise (I am not sure what the trend is today). I found I got a lot of satisfaction recommending the right lubricant to friends and relations for their generators, trawlers, and other equipment.”
“I noticed that many small and medium sized companies found it difficult to procure lubricants for their equipment because multinationals like Mobil were only interested in large corporates and multinationals like themselves. Hence, I thought that I could fill up the gap by supplying small and medium sized companies. After ten years of working with Mobil, I left to tap into these opportunities through the establishment of Techno Oil.” She says.
Nkechi brought zest, professionalism and international best practice into Techno Oil and in no time she positioned the company as a leader in the emerging indigenous oil and gas sector. Her company took advantage of the local content initiative and deregulation policy of the Nigerian government. She nurtured the company to remarkable success. Techno Oil has today established itself as a leading oil and gas company in Nigeria with annual revenues in excess of $250 million dollars and staff strength of 350 personnel.
Obi believes the Nigerian economy is strong. This has led Techno Oil to become a dominant player in the distribution of petroleum products across Nigeria through the deployment of strategic assets, including a landmark 45,000 MT Fuel Depot, 10,000MT Blending Plant, 1,000 MT LPG Bottling Plant and 20 retail outlets (filling stations) across Nigeria, and an LPG cylinder manufacturing plant to be commissioned in June 2015.
The company also has an ultra-modern petroleum laboratory and a private petroleum terminal, capable of docking two vessels simultaneously as well as a 10,000 MT on-going vessel that has facilitated the distribution of 13, million litres of petroleum products daily in Nigeria. Techno Oil has several distribution outlets in different locations across Nigeria, supplying a range of quality products that are ISO 9001; 2008 certified by NIS. This feat won Techno Oil the supplier of choice in 2009.
Using the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) platform of Techno Oil, Obi has attained new heights in charitable acts. The Techno Oil Executive Vice-Chairman has awarded scholarships to indigent Nigerians and financed the construction of classroom blocks and ICT Centres in secondary schools in Lagos, Abia and Anambra States.
Nkechi is a founding Chair of the Women Entrepreneurial Initiative (WEIN), founded by UNIFEM (An organisation affiliated to the UN) in 2005, a platform she used for advocacy to mediate between female entrepreneurs and government to address the issue of gender inequality. Obi believes in empowering people at different levels by speaking in conferences and seminars and training emerging entrepreneurs, especially in oil and gas.
In recognition of these achievements, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan bestowed a national honour of her. She is also a recipient of many other awards, including; the International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) Award in 2014- an initiative of the Chambers of Commerce of Manhanttan, New York, Barcelona and India; Awards by the Anambra, Lagos and Abia States Governments for immense contributions to CSR under the “Adopt-a-School” initiative, e.t.c. She also received award from the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) for invaluable contribution to the downstream sector, the Keyman Award by the Enugu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mines and Agriculture for immense contributions to economic and entrepreneurial development and the Most Innovative and Impactful Company in the Downstream Oil and Gas award by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in 2014.
Nkechi belongs to many professional bodies. She is a Council Member of the LCCI, Institute of Directors (IOD), Nigeria Economic Summit Group and Committee of Women Elders of the LCCI.
As Executive Vice Chairman, Nkechi’s main responsibilities are strategic planning and formulating company policies and controls for organisational growth. The key skills she brings to bear are analytical skills and strategy
Kemi Ajumobi
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