In commemoration of the 2022 World Malaria Day, OVH Energy Marketing, the leading indigenous marketer of choice, has partnered with the African Clean-up initiative, a non-profit advocacy organisation, for another edition of the Roll Back Malaria campaign. The campaign marked under the theme "Harness innovation to reduce the malaria disease burden and save lives" empowered local communities within Lagos and Rivers state. 

The Roll Back Malaria campaign is a partnership program conceived and implemented out of the need to educate people on Malaria preventive measures. The initiative seeks to identify and eradicate the associated effects of Malaria through education, empowerment, and treatment. Beneficiaries were enlightened on preventive measures and practical steps to prevent malaria outbreaks. Insecticide-treated mosquito nets were also distributed to men, women and children from the host communities.

World Malaria Day is marked annually to focus global attention on Malaria, and its impact on families, communities, and societal development, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the 2021 World Malaria Report by the World Health organisation, the African Region carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2020, Africa was home to 95% of malaria cases and 96% of malaria deaths, with children under 5 accounting for about 80% of all malaria deaths. 

Speaking on the impact of the initiative, the Chief Executive Officer of OVH Energy Marketing, Huub Stokman reiterated the company's commitment to malaria prevention and control to build a healthy and conducive environment for members of its host communities. He mentioned that Malaria remains a significant public health and development challenge that requires collective human efforts and technological innovation to manage.

"The WHO has warned that malaria deaths will probably dwarf direct deaths from COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria also poses a socio-economic challenge; sadly, it remains a burden costing the continent an estimated $12 billion yearly. Therefore, the fight against Malaria is a critical issue requiring strong private sector engagement. At OVH Energy, we are deeply committed to eradicating this disease amongst Nigerians while improving our host communities' social and economic development in alignment with United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal three, which is good health and well-being." He said.

Also commenting on the initiative, Alexander Akhigbe, founder of the African Cleanup Initiative (ACI) said, "Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease that continues to affect the health and livelihood of people worldwide. Thus, when individuals are properly educated, the spread can be prevented, and with the right treatment, the mortality rate will reduce."

OVH Energy's commitment to enriching its host community is commendable. Through various corporate social responsibility initiatives such as the University Scholarship Scheme, OLEUM Academy, amongst others, the firm continues to impact the lives of those within its host communities.

The Chief Marketing Officer of OVH Energy Marketing, Lilian Ikokwu, shares her perspective on women in marketing and the power of finding one's path.

Lilian Ikokwu had finished a Bachelor's in computer science from Nnamdi Azikiwe University when she had an epiphany. "Computer science is defined by rules and codes, programming languages and artificial intelligence," she said. "Shortly after graduation, it clicked for me; I wanted to try out other things. I wanted to develop creative solutions for ingenious business problems."

She navigated to marketing with her creativity, communication skills, and analytical abilities; she felt right at home. With her background in computer science, Lilian understood the numbers; she quickly realized that data-driven marketing is the backbone of all laser-sharp understanding of one's target audience.

Lilian's career trajectory has been an interesting one. Fresh to working in the oil and gas industry, she tried different size roles. She worked as a commercial branch manager, Lubricants and VAP Manager, Customer Care Manager, Network Optimization Manager, Head Lubricants (Sales & Marketing), and now Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Lilian has come a long way with an impressive role as CMO of one of Nigeria's most prominent indigenous marketers of choice, OVH Energy Marketing.   

She had been laying the groundwork for years. "Radical changes do not happen overnight. Thousands of seemingly insignificant blocks build a mansion; I believe the same thing happens with opportunities." Lilian said, "Laying the groundwork and capacity building sometimes take years; its back-breaking work that eventually pays off. Then, when the right opportunity comes along, you think to yourself, this is it! This is the moment I've been preparing for."

Sharing her views on women's progress in the marketing industry, Lilian said, "I am an optimist, so is it progressing? Yes. Is it fast enough? I don't think so. Across the spectrum, from client to agency side practitioners and through content creation to messaging, the business case has been made for the incredible upside to full female participation. It is proven that having women in leadership roles positively influences consumer representation. This should ordinarily be a no-brainer. But if it is so obvious and simple, why hasn't it been solved yet?"

Clarity on the root issues and a concrete plan to solve them are critical. For example, despite near-parity in entry-level numbers, women are outnumbered almost 2 to 1 by men in first-level manager jobs that are the bridges to senior roles. Lilian believes that levelling the playing field by dismantling obstacles that impede retention will increase female participation within the industry.

There is a dogged stubbornness that one needs to possess to succeed. This attitude serves Lilian well in her time at OVH Energy Marketing. Lilian said the fact is, "the profession attracts more females at entry-level. However, in Nigeria, upward mobility becomes a challenge due to the disproportionate duties a woman carries because of culture and non-supportive practices" This often results in a career break leaving few women at very senior levels to drive the change.

Policy and implementation are the solutions, Lilian explained. To support female employees for professional development while on maternity leave and for re-assimilation to the workforce is a game-changer.

She discovered through experience the importance of continued education and having a solid network. "I recommend both to ascending talents, sometimes it's exhausting, but it is worth it. Continue learning, dabble into different things because you'll never know if you don't try, and that is the only way you keep learning." Always a scientist at heart; she believes that even failed trials reveal helpful information.

 "Also have both women and men as allies. You are only as strong as your network, and while this may sound cliché, it is the truth. I have also noticed a reluctance in women to leverage their network. When this happens, I tell them why buy a fancy car if you won't take it out for a ride." Lilian said 

"To me, mentorship is critical in life," she said. "Seeing someone that is where you want to be, just has an impact on your life." Particularly as a Nigerian woman working in marketing, Lilian appreciates the unique impact her visibility can have on fellow women pursuing careers in Marketing.

 "I am inspired by so many great mentors who have helped me on this journey; I hope that I can serve others like that." By sharing our stories, Lilian reminds us, we equip each other with insight. Those are the most valuable gifts as we continue to find our path

Adaeze Nwakoby, Company Secretary/Group Head Legal and Human Resources for OVH Energy Marketing, talks about the status of women in leadership and the urgent need to break the bias.

When Adaeze Nwakoby began her legal career in the mid-2000s, she inadvertently walked into a male-dominated terrain where she had to work twice as hard to gain the professional respect of her colleagues. Having risen through the ranks to become a leader herself, Adaeze cannot help but notice the deep-seated gender leadership bias prevalent across Nigerian industries.

In her experience, the "bro-culture", overt patriarchy in the workplace, as well as other more subtle forms of bias against women sometimes preclude their attaining leadership roles,

"In the conventional work environment, it is far more likely that a female would be required to prove her capabilities than it is for a male to be”, she says.

According to Adaeze, despite marked advances in gender-equality over the last decade in Nigeria, women are still grossly underrepresented within the corporate leadership landscape here. 

"When I graduated from the Nigerian Law School back in 2004, there were far more male graduates than female, but today there is nearly an equal proportion of both genders graduating. Ironically however, the male-dominated leadership within legal academia, corporate law, and the judiciary in Nigeria has remained almost entirely the same way since 2004”, she says.

Again, in her words, a close examination of industries in the country – from oil and gas, to corporate legal, to healthcare, and even to the ultra-progressive entertainment industry – will show that while qualified women for leadership roles abound, opportunities for them do not.

“The outcomes are cyclical – the fact of very few women in leadership roles shape expectations and the value system accordingly: women are less likely to be given opportunities if the systemic paradigm is for them not to be, and with a dearth of female leaders as role models, young women are less likely to be inspired towards toward leadership”.

In Adaeze’s experience, the woman is sometimes vilified for the same attributes that would be idealized or overlooked in a man in her position. The strong, uncompromising woman is easily branded ‘difficult’, and the empathic woman is considered ‘too emotional’, in a way to suggest that for reason of her gender she is less capable than a man to take on the hard decision making the leadership role demands.

Nevertheless, Adaeze says, the tide is turning, howbeit slowly. More women are attaining C-suite management roles across industries in Nigeria, and these elite few are leading a spirited charge to inspire  more gender inclusion, and to inspire the next generation of female leaders to demand an equal seat at the management table.

In her opinion, organizations need to regard gender inclusion, especially at the leadership level, as a key area of focus. She believes that gender diversity in the board room allows for a broader perspective in decision making and a more strategic divergence of opinion, which would improve the quality of business decisions. She however emphasized the need to generally recognize that the push for gender inclusion is not an undue plea for attention towards women, but rather a conscious effort to fairly reward excellence regardless of gender. For women, she said that they must also realize that gender inclusion does not translate to preferential treatment, and as such, they must, just like their male counterparts, proactively stay abreast of relevant industry and political discussions, upskill from time to time, and develop essential soft skills to make them deserving contenders for leadership roles.

Finally, she said, everyone must self-examine for even the smallest gender-biases.

"Most people have unconscious prejudices that they have been conditioned to harbor by their environments. Unravelling these biases is an important step to eliminating them. A lot of our gender bias is rooted in our cultural, and even moral ideals. If we are to progress towards inclusion, we must unlearn and relearn on many deep-seated levels, as a society really”.

Adaeze believes that gender equality in corporate leadership within Nigeria is not a pipe dream, but rather something that is attainable in the short rather long term.  

Abuja, Nigeria: March 2022: Nigeria’s leading indigenous marketer of choice, OVH Energy Marketing (Oando Licensee) has proffered strong recommendations on the development of the midstream and downstream Oil & Gas industry in Nigeria, suggesting that the sector needs significant infrastructure investments. This was discussed at the just concluded 5^th Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) held in Abuja themed: “Revitalising the Industry: Future Fuels and Energy Transition.”

The summit which, has gathered momentum on the global scene, is a platform for Nigeria to engage both local and international stakeholders towards the effective development of the oil and gas sector as a strong catalyst for economic growth.

The second day of the five-day conference featured a CEO roundtable with Mr. Huub Stokman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of OVH Energy Marketing Ltd, Oando licensee, advocating for more collaboration amongst relevant stakeholders in the industry to develop on the necessary measures that can improve infrastructural development in the sector to meet customers’ needs. 

“On Midstream and Downstream infrastructural development, the industry needs more investment to expand and boost our jetties, the pipelines, depots, trucks and human capacity development for a safe operation. We recognize that the industry needs more funding and investment to achieve all of these whilst customers’ demands are met and creating values to the end users.,” he said.  He further stated that the new refineries will change the supply landscape, and Nigeria becoming self sufficient in the production of refined fuel. This is a major milestone. He noted. If this happens combined with a good competitive environment (a level playing field), the customer can decide the best price served and who they want to buy from. A regulated market slightly distorts these elements.”. According to Mr. Stokman, new refineries will produce cleaner fuels which is good for the environment, and for the good health of all Nigerians. The current challenge around fuel supply and distribution shows us that as an industry, we need to have a good emergency plan (e.g.  the refineries go down for maintenance, what then do we do?). We should use today’s challenges as a learning opportunity for the future, he advocated.”

He commended the Federal Government for the signing of the PIA and the swift response of the Authority Chief Executive in the implementation of the Act, however, he observed that the postponement of full deregulation of industry will pose a lot of challenges to the industry.  As it is the decade of gas, we should also capture gas (LPG, CNG, LNG) as a substantial part of the energy mix of Nigeria: - in terms of Energy Self-sufficiency and towards a sustainable future.

Mr. Stokman further commended the efforts to bring together industry stakeholders to share ideas on how to move the country forward, “this is our fourth participation at the NIES, and it is a wonderful platform for players in both upstream and downstream. This a great event which brings in foreign and local experts to exchange ideas, opinions, trends and outlook for the future.”

OVH Energy Marketing also won the 2021 Best Downstream Company Award. The award was conferred on OVH Energy Marketing at the gala night of the fifth Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja on Monday.

Speaking on the award, Mr. Stokman explained that the award is a reward for the company’s repeated commitment to be customer-centric whilst contributing to the development of the downstream sector. In his words, “we are always humbled to receive recognitions like this and a big thank you to our customers for their unwavering patronage over the years”.

“OVH Energy Marketing will continue to provide exceptional services to our customers, as our strong unrivaled heritage drives to impact our customers’ lives positively while distributing over 1 billion liters of refined petroleum products annually and providing trusted petroleum services including, supply reliability and technical expertise nationwide”.

In recent times, Nigeria has made strategic moves towards becoming a foremost oil and gas investment destination, through ongoing strategic sectoral reforms and engagement with host communities. This year’s NIES conference continues to engage industry experts and investors on developing hedging strategies to combat prevailing sectoral challenges towards unlocking inherent value in the near future.