L.E.A.D (Learn, Experience, Articulate & Decide) is a sustainable development initiative of TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria Plc. (TEMNPLC) with the objective of building the knowledge of senior secondary school students on career choices, prospects, requirements, and pathways.

The theme of the career project held on Wednesday, July 5, 2023, at the TotalEnergies Apapa Terminal Depot was Building a Sustainable Future through Youth Leadership.

In his address, the Managing Director, TEMNPLC, Dr. Samba Seye remarked that the initiative started in 2014 from a physical event to a hybrid with increased participation across the country.

“TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria Plc. has implemented this programme in 154 schools with over 3,740 students directly benefitting.”

The MD stated that TotalEnergies intends to see an increasing number of teenagers making the right career choices while bridging the gap between industry and the academia.

Dr. Seye remarked that, “the company is committed to the education of young people, and as such, places a high premium on educational initiatives such as the L.E.A.D Career project. The contribution of education in the development of any country cannot be over-emphasised.”

Principal Education Officer, Education District 4, Mrs. Omolaoye Adebisi remarked that the Lagos State Ministry of Education is passionate about student’s development and encourages partnerships with organisations like TotalEnergies. She used the opportunity to encourage the girlchildren to explore more the field of engineering just like their male counterparts.

Earlier, the General Manager, TotalEnergies Country Services, Mrs. Adesua Adewole had an interactive discussion with the students on Leadership, the values expected and how to define what they stand for.

Then came the Climate Action session led by the Climate Change and Sustainability Expert at FABE International Foundation, Mr. Okeyinka Israel. He encouraged the students to take leadership positions and make a stand on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with a focus on Goal 13 – Climate Action. Mr. Israel encouraged the students to let their career choice be influenced by the need to make the future sustainable.

Over 1200 students from more than 23 schools across the geo-political zones of the country participated in the hybrid career project. They included 30 students who had the opportunity to physically participate in the Job Shadow, an aspect of the project that allows students to understudy the daily routine of employees, on the job. The secondary school students also participated in the tour of the TotalEnergies Apapa Depot in Lagos to have a first-hand experience of depot operations.

“Today, we are making a huge investment in renewables and solar. The landscape is changing. In Nigeria, the cost of energy has doubled, and people are looking for value for their money. So, we came up with a very robust card system. We have a very good spread of over 525 stations across the country. Technological innovation has been at the forefront of our trajectory. Everything we do today is to meet our customer expectations.”

He gave an example of another tool that station and site managers can access online to check the location of any dispatched truck. “This has helped us to know the level of efficiency of our truck deployment, behaviour of drivers, timely delivery, etc. Our stations are complete one-stop shopping centers. We are completely innovating and improving as our customers’ demand, and we are leveraging innovation.”

Reacting to the present realities of pricing of products at the stations, Mr. Umar said: “If you look at this industry 25 years ago, most of the players were multinationals. Today, they’ve all ran away leaving only TotalEnergies. What I am saying is it is a very difficult terrain to operate in.”

Expressing opinion on solutions to petroleum product availability and pricing, he said: “The only solution that can make things easy for customers is as we’ve all discussed – local refining. If we can push the crude, get it to the refineries, move the products to our stations, the prices that you are talking about will go down.”

Explaining further, the GM, stated: “But today, what is the refining capacity? How much of this product will be able to meet the needs of our customers? Majority of the products we sell in our retails stations today are imported by the government and everybody understands the pricing structure when you import. Nobody can sit on this panel today to say I am going to cut down my cost. It is about cost and margins. We have to definitely generate revenues to meet with our responsibilities. Overall, our most important satisfaction is that we are providing values to our customers.”

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