National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Bulk Energy Storage and Transportation Limited Company (BOST) were the toast of participants at this year’s CEOs’ summit held at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel in Accra.
The bosses of the two state-owned companies, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid and Dr. Edwin Provencal respectively, were honoured for exemplary leadership at Summit.
NPA Boss
The Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, was adjudged the Best CEO of the Year 2023 in the petroleum sector (Regulations).
The award was in recognition of his outstanding contributions and exemplary leadership in the country’s petroleum downstream industry.
The Summit highlights and commends the accomplishments of CEOs and businesses, emphasising their success, innovation, leadership, and contributions to the economy.
This year’s event on under the theme “Reigniting Business and Economic Growth: Charting a Path Forward; Economic Diversification and Artificial Intelligence Transformation. A Private-Public Sector CEO Dialogue and High Impact Learning.”
It was organised by the Chief Executives Network Ghana in collaboration with Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (Pwc), Ministry of Public Enterprises, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), University of Ghana and Multimedia group.
In his remark, the NPA Boss who doubles as the President of the Africa Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA), said he was grateful to the Board, Management and staff of the NPA for their continuous support.
It will be recalled that Dr. Abdul-Hamid received the Outstanding Public Sector Leadership Award for the Year 2022 for his exemplary leadership, innovation and transformation in the petroleum downstream industry in the country.
He emerged as the Public Sector CEO for the Year 2022 at the Ghana Business Awards. Similarly, in 2021 the NPA Boss was awarded for his sterling leadership, business excellence, and professionalism at the Ghana CEO Excellence Awards
BOST honoured
The Managing Director of BOST, Dr. Edwin Alfred Provencal and the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Ekow Hackman were given special recognition as ‘Outstanding CEO of the Year’ and ‘Board Chairman of the year’ respectively.
The recognition, according to their respective citations, was for the great transformation the two have led at the company, turning its fortunes around and making it the best-run state-owned enterprise in the country.
Within a 12-month period, the company moved from number eight to four on the Public Enterprise League Table and is tipped to do better at the next ranking of state-owned enterprises.
Recounting the state of the business by end of financial year 2016, the company had run three successive years of losses with the highest of GHS459 million (in 2016) at the back of deteriorating infrastructure which had reduced its revenue earning assets to a paltry 18%.
Among other things, it was also indebted to its suppliers and related parties in excess of $600 million and heavily indebted to the domestic banks in excess of GHS400 million.
With three out of six depots across the country grounded and all marine assets non-operational, the company was in a tight corner.
Fast forward to 2021, the company made a profit of GHS163 million and more than doubled the figure to declare a profit after tax of GHS342 million in the 2022 financial year.
Its revenue assets have improved from the 18% to 95% to date with all six depots, all pipelines and all marine assets in full operation fetching varied volumes of revenue.
Among other things, the performance of the company was given a continent-wide-recognition in the year 2023 in Kenya where it was recognised as the ‘most transformed public enterprise in Africa’. Indeed, this is a tremendous improvement in the company’s situation and the recognition accorded the duo was in order.
Dr. Provencal and Mr. Hackman praised the company’s management team for their cooperation and all members of staff for their wonderful contributions which has brought the company thus far.
The former President, John Dramani Mahama was the guest of honour at the event and people from all across the sectors of the company were represented at the event.
