By our features editor
The spirit of entrepreneurship in Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah is ever powerful and unstoppable. When it calls, he moves. That spirit moved Uche Ogah, as he is simply called, when he was an Assistant General Manager at Zenith Bank. At the brink of his ascendancy to the peak of his banking career which usually attracts enticing pay packages and other perks of office, Ogah was led by the spirit to leave for the world of entrepreneurship.
The outcome of that move was the founding of Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited, now a foremost integrated energy marketing company with 15 subsidiaries and counting.
After building Masters Energy into one of Africa’s fastest-growing conglomerates, Ogah decided to veer into politics, culminating in his appointment as the Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development in 2019. At the end of his ministerial assignment in 2022, Ogah, like other politicians in his mould, had the option of consolidating or expanding his sphere of political power and influence by seeking higher, bigger or more powerful political offices. But his spirit of entrepreneurship came knocking again. It took Ogah back to Masters Energy Group where he is now focused on expanding the frontiers of its reach, deepening its market penetration and increasing the diversity of its operations, product and service offerings. He is poised to generate growth for the company, employment and other opportunities as well as contribute to the country’s economic transformation.
“Masters Energy Group is positioning to expand its business, increase presence in the Nigerian market and ultimately achieve an exponential revenue growth through massive investment, partnerships, and new products,” Ogah told reporters recently at the end of the Masters Energy Group 2024 Senior Leadership Strategy Retreat, held in Lagos under the theme: “Innovation, Exponential Revenue Growth by Cost Management and New Product Introduction.” The essence of the retreat was for senior and top-level workers at the leadership cadre to deliberate and strategically decide on innovations and initiatives the organisation was implementing to enhance its business operations.
Mrs Patience Dappa, the Group Managing Director of Masters Energy, explained: “We want to go into a lot of business that we haven’t been before; that is why we are having this retreat for us to come together to discuss, to strategize on how this year will be better than last year.
“We all know that subsidy is out of the way, so we need to look at how we can survive and sustain our business without the presence of subsidy. So actually, we are looking at how can we bring in products; how we can partner with other refineries outside the country to bring in white products like petrol, diesel, so we don’t rely on NNPC to supply us with products.”
Dappa disclosed that, in the area of manufacturing, the conglomerate was also looking to introduce new product lines like household products, and that by the end of this year, Masters Energy products would be in every household in Nigeria. The company is also considering exploring opportunities in the export business by exporting their goods outside Nigeria to enable them overcome challenges associated with high exchange rate.
The Group is also expanding its footprint in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) business and had, in 2023, performed the flag-off of the Masters Energy 40,000 metric tonnes LPG storage facility in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. “We are hoping that before the end of next year, we should be able to complete that storage facility. So, that is an additional expansion for us. It’s a 40,000 metric tonnes facility, but we are going to have it in phases. So right now, the first phase is going to be 20,000 metric tons of LPG and propane.
Felix Eribo, Group Executive Director, Operations, said the company was taking the oil and gas downstream market by storm with its massive investment, new products, and innovation. The company’s product off-take from NNPC Retail Limited has continued to increase on a daily basis and that they are spreading their outlets to every part of the country. Masters Energy presently has about 300 retail outlets across major cities in Nigeria with not less than 50 more outlets scheduled to come on stream before end of this year. The Executive Director said Masters Energy was able to obtain an off-take license from Dangote Refinery largely because of its available infrastructure. “When Dangote Refinery came, we applied. We didn’t have any problem getting an approval,” he explained. “So, we are glad to have that and we appreciate that gesture from Dangote. So we’re going to add that as part of our source of products. So, that will ensure that all our outlets are wet continuously.”
Although Ogah, a holder of Bachelor of Science degree in Banking and Finance and an MBA, nursed a lifelong ambition to be an entrepreneur, he suppressed it in favour of a career in banking. He began at the defunct NAL Merchant Bank where he did his national youth service, before joining the defunct All States Trust Bank and Zenith Bank. The position he occupied at Zenith Bank was quite significant, considering the premium the bank places on competence and merit. As an Assistant General Manager, he must have been among the best and the brightest. But Ogah didn’t see a future in banking. He left a comfort zone in obedience to the pull of entrepreneurship which would enable him to leave his footprints on the sands of time. And the only way he could achieve this was to establish an organization that would outlive him, not only in providing goods and services, but most importantly in improving the quality of lives of as many people as it could touch, directly and indirectly. That was the thinking that gave birth to Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited.
Incorporated in Nigeria in 2005 to operate in the oil and gas sector, Masters Energy Oil & Gas Limited has evolved into a diversified Group, providing services not only in the Oil and Gas sector, but also in other strategic sectors of the economy such as Manufacturing of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Aviation, Shipping and Marine, Real Estate, etc. The members of the Masters Energy Group include Energy Oil and Gas; Masters Energy Plastic Industries; Masters Noodles and Food Processing; Masters Energy Commodities and Trading; and Masters Renewable Energy.
Others are: Alsa Petrochemicals Limited; Alsa Logistics; Masters Properties Development & Investment Limited; Masters Bureau de change; and Modern Standard Insurance. The rest include Amicable Oil and Gas; Olive Microfinance Bank; Olive Payment Solution; Destiny Marine; and Masters Dredging and Shore.
When Masters Energy Oil & Gas Ltd, commenced business in 2005, there were few private jetties for discharge and storage of petroleum products. The company took the bull by the horn and embarked on the construction of a 158,000 MT storage facility at Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt. Christened “Masters Energy City,” the facility has been nurtured into an integrated energy facility and has helped to ensure steady supply of petroleum products in the South-East, South-South, and North Central geo-political zones of the country.
The company has since increased its stake in the downstream sub-sector with the establishment of lube blending plants in different parts of the country to manufacture industrial and automotive lubricants, the Masters Brand, which is a toast of motorists and industries around the Country.
To key into the Federal Government’s Gas Master Plan, Masters Energy Oil & Gas Ltd is constructing a Liquified Gas processing plant at the Energy City, Port Harcourt. The company has established various gas retail points across the country to bring gas to the doorsteps of consumers, while encouraging the preservation of the environment.
To contribute further to the economic transformation of the country, by reducing rural-urban migration, ensuring rural development and providing mass employment, Masters Group diversified into production of FMCG and industrial goods. The Masters Energy Industrial City, located at Onuaku Uturu, Abia state, is an industrial hub with various production plants churning out high quality goods such as Noodles, biscuits, plastic and PVC products, cartons and packaging materials, tricycle assembling, etc., offering direct and indirect employment to over 5000 people.
The Group places high premium on business sustainability and has a well-articulated CSR policy. The company’s HSE policies are World class, and offer scholarships to indigenes of host communities at various levels of education. The company provides and sponsors vocational training to empower the indigenes. It also spends handsomely on the provision of light and power, water, housing, and medical facilities for its host communities. Riding on the back of excellent service delivery, it has attained major milestones and record- setting achievements that have earned it awards, certificates and recognition in Nigeria and Internationally.
The Group has continued to break new grounds and attain greater heights. The ongoing efforts by Dr. Ogah, fresh from his ministerial assignment, to expand its frontiers is just the latest phase of that corporate transformation.
