Growth is on the table for World Oil who is in the process of construcng a new terminal as well as expanding its fleet of trucks. Established in 1999 and having originated from the Bidyanguze Group of Companies, the company has kept true to its roots since its incepon and has learnt many valuable lessons through the current oil crisis. Endeavour spoke with execuve director, Hekima Bidyanguze. WRITTEN BY DON CAMPBELL EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION www.lilegatepublishing.com WORLD OIL TANZANIA WWW.WORLDOIL.CO.TZ 255 22 2862079
Transcript
Growth is on the table for World Oil who is in the process of constructing a new terminal as well as expanding its fleet of trucks. Established in 1999 and having originated from the Bidyanguze Group of Companies, the company has kept true to its roots since its inception and has learnt many valuable lessons through the current oil crisis. Endeavour spoke with executive director, Hekima Bidyanguze.
WRITTEN BY DON CAMPBELL
EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION
www.littlegatepublishing.com
WORLD OIL TANZANIAWWW.WORLDOIL.CO.TZ
255 22 2862079
transportation. While the products and services will stay the same, they have always insisted upon development to put themselves into a position from which they can offer more efficiency and a higher quality of both products and services to their clients.
“Currently we are in the process of constructing a new terminal and parking yard,” he says, “And we are also acquiring new trucks for the improvement of our transport services,”
These changes will add to an already impressive facility where currently they have 100 trucks and 100 trailers for the transportation of their products in East and Central Africa zones covering Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, DRC Congo and Malawi.
“We have a fuel terminal consisting of sixtanks with storage capacity of 5.5 Million litreseach situatedon plots nos.37 and 38 and a second terminal consisting of four tanks with a total storage capacity of 35,900,039 situated on plot no.35 and a third terminal, which currently has two tanks and astorage capacity of 17,879,228litresin total,which is situated onplot no.36,” he describes, “Construction is in progress to add two more tanks.”
Besides the said facilities, the company owns a depot consisting of one tank with capacity of 3.1 million litres at Kigoma, in the western part of the country adjacent to Lake Tanganyika and the company also owns a pair of depots in DRC Congo with capacity of 2 million and 4 million litres, which were built in partnership with Congolese Nationals .
Hekima assures that these facilities host the most advanced technology available and are managed by highly trained and developed personnel, all of whom are very knowledgeable in the market environment.
It is no secret that the oil industry is currently proving to be a challenging environment to operate in and this is due to various factors, which lead to non-achievement ofplanned goals, which can put further plans and targets into jeopardy.
Currency fluctuations of the Tanzanian shilling against the dollar, especially where payment is made in terms of dollars can put strain on the company coffers and this isonly aggravated by the price fluctuation for petroleum products themselves, which forces the Government to appoint regulators for the importation of petroleum products who set the selling price of oil to avoid commotion in the
In a nutshell, the business practices of World Oil are fairly straightforward on the surface revolving around the importation, distribution and marketing of petroleum products.
“These activities have led to some changes since we originally began because as of today, World Oil is a million dollar company that is constantly seeking to develop its
various aspects of businesses,” Hekima tells us, “We have achieved our impressive turnover growth over the years by developing our network and services to better serve the needs of the customers, suppliers and end-users,”
To achieve this there are a series of mechanisms in place that have been devised and relied upon over the years. With regards to products, they offer premium motor sport and automotive diesel gasoil and services-wise, they offer storage facilities and fuel
industry. Interest rates, at the moment, are very high in financial institutions so when money is needed to safeguard employees, subsidise business and invest in new projects, borrowing proves to be very costly.
Interruption in electricity supply increases the expenditure on fuel to run generators just to enable operations to continue, which is a sad reminder of the number of businesses operating in the top echelon of supply and demand who suffer inspite of the fact that the Government is doing its best to provide reliable infrastructure. However with the recent commissioning of the source of energy from Gas in the Southern part of the country in Lindi & Mtwara, the future is bright and a solution to the erratic electricity supply problem.
“The other problem that we face is a shortage of skilled personnel and professionals,”
Much of the Tanzanian population have achieved quite an acceptable level of education, however most upcoming youngsters are lacking in professional experience. . Some of Those who are trained and have experience often leave Tanzania to seek green pastures elsewhere and this creates a deficit and void within Tanzania. This means that World Oil isvery proud and protective of the 300 personnel that it employs.
“The staff have to adhere to the Tanzanian labour laws and the company policies that are in place to maintain the highest standards
of responsibility and integrity,” Hekima explains, “This helps them to maintain faithfulness and be responsible to the company.”
Training is provided to staff and this includes safety education concerning the use of fire fighting facilities and how to deal with fire accidents whenever they happen. Drivers are trained on how to deal with mechanical issues, so as to enable operations to continue and of course there is a great deal of training for staff in marketing techniques to allow for efficient service to customers.
“The individual staff training is important because efficiency and effectiveness is increased,whileadding value to the company,” Hekima reminds us.
The company has started to implement new capital investments andto employ modern facilities and techniques in order to satisfy the demand of the market, Hekima says, “Also, we plan to expand our business by investing in machines and tools, while increasing the number of professionals in order to satisfy the prospective customers’ demands. We are therefore recruiting heavily,”
Along with the aforementioned developments, there is a great expectation for the future of World Oil with an anticipated growth in profitability and value, as well as a surge in market share. But Hekima is quick to highlight that, “Our new developments will help us gain an increased social awareness through our recruitment and employment opportunities,”
