The overwhelming success story of RainOil Group, one of the leading players in the downstream sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, is attributable to not just the entrepreneurial acumen of its founder and Group Managing Director, Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie. It is also an eloquent testament to the power of understanding and genuine partnership between husband and wife. Together, Dr. Gabriel and Godrey Ogbechie have nursed RainOil from just a concept 28 years ago to a multi-billion Naira conglomerate with many subsidiaries playing at the top end of various sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Both Gabriel and Godrey started their working life, not as entrepreneurs but as employees with reputable companies. The former, a Production Engineering graduate of University of Benin, began his career in PriceWaterhouseCoopers, an accounting firm, before switching to an oil and gas company in the early 1990s as the Sales Operations Manager. That move opened the Delta State-born young man’s eyes to opportunities that existed in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, leading to the formation of RainOil Limited in 1997.
Although a co-founder of RainOil his wife, Godrey, a 1988 graduate of Agricultural Economics and Extension, and a holder of Master’s Degree in Business Administration, did not work for the family company until 12 years later. She was pursuing a banking career with Universal Trust Bank and Fidelity Bank. By the time Mrs. Ogbechie joined RainOil in 2009 as an Executive Director, she had logged 19 years of experience in the banking industry, the last years being at the managerial level in Human Resource Management, which she deployed to the service of RainOil. In her position as Executive Director, a role she occupies to date, Mrs. Ogbechie oversees Corporate Support Services functions, including Human Resources, Information Technology, Brand and Corporate Communications, Admin and Facilities Management.
Amongst several of her other crucial accomplishments at RainOil Mrs. Ogbechie established robust systems and controls across the Group’s operations. Under her supervision as Group Executive Director, and a key member of the Executive Leadership, RainOil Limited has thrived and achieved significant expansion with respect to the growth of the Group’s business operations across the entire downstream value chain, foraged into the upstream business and has several other investments including investments in agriculture, shipping and real estate.
Following RainOil’s foray into Real Estate, Agriculture and Hospitality, Mrs. Ogbechie was appointed the Managing Director of Norsworthy Investments Limited in 2022 to oversee the group’s investments in non–fuel businesses. She has performed in this role for the last three years in addition to her duties as Group ED responsible for shared services. She seats as Director on the Board of Eterna Plc, an aviation fuel company quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX), in which her husband’s Preline Limited holds controlling shares. On his part, apart from being the Group Managing Director of RainOil Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie serves as the Chairman of Eterna Plc and holds a directorship position at Globus Bank. He sits on the boards of several other companies in the agro-allied and real estate sectors.
Together, in sustained marital and business partnership, Dr. Gabriel and Godrey Ogbechie have overseen the phenomenal growth of the RainOilGroup’s business operations across the entire downstream value chain, including investment in agriculture & real estate. The company’s strategic assets include three ultra-modern petroleum product storage depots with a combined capacity of 150 million litres, an 8,000 metric tonne LPG bulk storage facility in Ijegun, Lagos State; over 200 retail petrol stations strategically spread throughout the country, over 40 LPG retail outlets, a fleet of over 400 petroleum product tank trucks for efficient delivery of products to its network of stations and customers across the country.
The Ogbechies are unarguably a force in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. The names Ogbechie and RainOilhave become synonymous with success in the energy sector. The couple have ensured that they translate their success into a pillar of support for the rest of society through the implementation of various corporate social responsibility (CSR) and philanthropic schemes. They are passionate about people development, especially childhood education. Using the Gabriel Ogbechie Foundation as a vehicle for empowerment, they have built and donated blocks of classrooms to schools in communities, and empowered private teaching support for staff and students in underserved communities. The foundation also provides scholarships to undergraduates, community healthcare services, and other forms of youth employment opportunities. In sports, one of their major initiatives is the sponsorship, since 2017, of the annual RainOilTennis Open in partnership with the Nigerian Tennis Federation with the objective of paving the way for an international tournament that would see Tennis stars from various parts of the world come to play in Nigeria.
The contributions of the Ogbechies to the development and growth of the RainOilGroup, entrepreneurship, the country’s economy, and society at large have been widely acknowledged and recognized. For instance, Dr. Ogbechie was conferred with the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) by President Mohammadu Buhari in 2022. Earlier in 2016, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (D.Sc.) in Technology Management by Novena University, Ogume, Delta State. He and RainOilhave since received several other awards such as the Downstream Company of the Year Award at the 2020 Business Day Nigerian Business Leadership Awards, the Downstream Man of the Year Award at the 2018 Oil Trading & Logistics Conference, Finalist at the 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and The Most Peaceful Oil Personality in Nigeria. The selection of Dr. Gabriel and Mrs. Godrey Ogbechie as one of the Top10 Magazine’s 10 Most Impactful Power Couples in Nigeria is in recognition of their outstanding contributions to Nigeria’s economic development as they serve as inspiration to upcoming couples.
