The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has, as part of its contribution to curb the spread of the dreaded coronavirus disease, has developed a contacts tracing software application that would be deployed in all its location across the country.
This was disclosed in a press release by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division NNPC, Dr. Kennie Obateru on Wednesday June 3, 2020.
Obateru, while quoting NNPC’s Group General Manager, Information Technology Division (ITD), Danladi Inuwa, said the novel app was part of the oil company’s sectoral contribution to the containment of the spread of the pandemic within its formations and ministries, departments and agencies of the government.
This is in line with the Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) agenda of the present Leadership of the NNPC, and the commitment to continually deploy Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for the purposes of operational efficiency and accountability within the corporation’s system.
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According to Inuwa, “The Contacts-Tracing Solution is ready to be deployed, all the technical testing has been done and the solution is ready to go live. Everywhere you go around NNPC locations would be covered by this novel application which would reveal all information about persons visiting any official and should there be any medical challenge, the NNPC Medical would be able to track from the information at the database all the contacts and advise properly,”
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He said the application could also be used by members of staff of the corporation to document their private visitors at their homes, stressing that the novel application would enable the workforce to adjust adequately to the ‘new normal’ way of living to minimize the spread of the disease.
The IT expert stated that in order to minimize human contacts in business transactions at the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a Downstream subsidiary of NNPC, in the face of COVID-19, the corporation has also deployed a Sales and Distribution application in the Oil and Gas Secondary Model Portal that would enable marketers buy petroleum products online.
He said the application, known as the Customer Express, would also enable marketers to register, validate and revalidate their Bulk Purchase Agreements online within a week, adding that the portal provides a dashboard that enables the corporation to track every molecule of products being imported, transported and sold at every given time.
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Inuwa said, “The Portal shows what product is in transit in terms of volume, what quantity is in the jetty, what volume has gone into the pipelines, what quantity has gone into NNPC depots, private depots, and refinery depots. So, we have an accurate accounting of every molecule of products that we have in our system,”
Inuwa also pointed out that the members of Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) are now buying products online seamlessly while the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) and other relevant Downstream stakeholders are expected to start transacting business on the platform soon.
He stated that an application that can show the volume of stocks in the tanks of all NNPC Retail stations across the country has equally being deployed and the ticketing digitized, affirming that more technological innovations would be deployed in the months ahead.
