‘Every litre, every payment will be transparent’

The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, Bayo Ojulari, has assured Nigerians that the company’s newly commissioned Smart Self-Service Station will deliver transparent pricing, accurate fuel dispensing and secure digital payments.

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In this interview, Ojulari explains the strategic importance of the project, its place in NNPC Limited’s broader transformation agenda and the company’s plans to replicate the model nationwide.

What is the strategic significance of NNPC Retail’s first Smart Self-Service Station, and how does it support NNPC Limited’s broader transformation agenda?

It is important to place this development within the context of the Culture Transformation journey NNPC Limited embarked upon well over a year ago. The journey is centred on our “Fit-for-Future” strategic pillars: Enterprise-First Mindset, Execution Excellence, Profitable Growth and Partner of Choice.

The recently commissioned Smart Self-Service Station represents the attainment of an important milestone in the transformation of NNPC Retail and NNPC Limited more broadly.

It demonstrates, in practical terms, how we are using technology to improve the efficiency of our retail operations. This is a direct expression of our Execution Excellence pillar.

It also supports our ambition to build a customer-centric and digitally enabled energy company that listens and responds to the changing needs of Nigerians. That is the essence of being a genuine Partner of Choice.

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The facility equally reflects our commitment to transparent operations across our businesses, which we believe will benefit not only the company but also Nigeria’s wider growth and development, in line with our Profitable Growth pillar.

The model combines self-service fuelling with digital payments and additional energy solutions, including electric vehicle charging, Liquefied Petroleum Gas and Compressed Natural Gas.

It is not simply a new type of filling station. It signals a shift towards a more integrated and technology-enabled energy retail experience, developed in collaboration with our technology and retail partners.

When should Nigerians expect the Smart Station model—including self-service fuelling, EV charging, LPG and CNG—to be replicated across the country?

We understand the urgency behind this question, and we share it. Nigerians deserve to see the benefits of this innovation extended to more communities as quickly as possible.

However, at NNPC Limited, speed and sustainability must go hand in hand. Execution Excellence, one of our core pillars, means moving with deliberate speed while ensuring that whatever we build will last.

This first Smart Station is a proof of concept, and we are moving deliberately—not slowly.

Our immediate focus is to learn from its operations in real time, work closely with our technology partners to refine the system and ensure that the customer experience meets the standard Nigerians deserve.

When we scale, we want to replicate a model that works—not one that we will have to rebuild.

Subject to the outcome of this initial deployment, we expect the rollout to proceed in structured phases nationwide. The expansion will be guided by customer demand, location, infrastructure readiness and the availability of the different energy solutions in each area.

Our commitment is to move with urgency while executing the project in a manner that stands the test of time.

How will NNPC ensure that the technology delivers transparent pricing, accurate dispensing, secure payments and a reliable customer experience?

This is where our Enterprise-First Mindset and Execution Excellence pillars are tested in a tangible way. Integrity in our operations and trust and convenience for our customers are two sides of the same commitment.

The Smart Station has been designed with real-time monitoring of transactions and equipment performance. It is also supported by dedicated maintenance and customer-support processes to ensure that issues are identified and resolved promptly—not after the fact.

Controls have been incorporated to ensure pricing accuracy, proper dispensing calibration and the security of digital payments. These measures were developed in partnership with our technology providers to meet the standards our customers deserve.

Just as importantly, we intend to continue listening to our customers. We will use operational data and direct customer feedback to refine the system continuously.

Our objective is simple: every transaction must be easy, secure and transparent, and every customer must leave confident that they received exactly what they paid for.