The 45th meeting of the Group Materials Management Consultative Committee (GMMCC) was hosted by NAPIMS at Colonades Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos recently with participants drawn from various NNPC Materials Management Departments and Divisions.

Declaring the meeting open, Mr. M. A. Fiddi, the Group General Manager, NAPIMS, remarked that adopting Supply Chain Management (SCM) in all its ramifications is very crucial to the survival and success of the Oil and Gas Industry and indeed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) since materials acquisition/management constitute about 80% of the total spend of business in the Sector.

Therefore, he posited that effective cost control can be achieved in the Oil and Gas Industry through professionalism, development and deployment of world class processes and best practices in Supply Chain Management. He charged the forum to address the challenge of rising cost in the industry. He stressed the need to grow and develop in-house capabilities through sharing of resources and information on best practices in Supply Chain Management which is the objective of the GMMCC.

He reassured the forum of NAPIMS' willingness to share her experiences in her interactions with Multinational Oil Companies and our JV/PSC partners with GMMCC with the view to finding solutions to the challenges of materials and logistics management in NNPC.

In the same vein, Engr. U. Muhammad, the GM Group Materials Management, in his welcome address, enumerated the progress so far made to transform GMMD into a Supply Chain Management Division (SCMD) and speeding up SAP line implementation in the Division amongst other things.

The General Manager, Materials Management Division, NAPIMS, Engr. H. S. Tahir, stressed on the need to expeditiously conclude all the outstanding issues with particular reference to the work on the harmonized Clearing and Forwarding Tariffs and granting approval for SONCAP Certification to the Exploration and Production companies.

The salient issues deliberated upon were Customs Duty Payments/Computation training, approval for SONCAP Exemption Certification, NNPC SAP material management (MM) module data gathering, Supply chain Management (SCM) implementation, delay in raising LPO/audit attestation and third party warehousing. Solutions were proffered and recommendations made to management where necessary.