The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) has presented the Procurement Excellence Standard Certificate to Seplat Energy Plc, the foremost Nigerian independent energy company.
The Global Chief Executive Officer, CIPS, Ben Farrell, made the presentation to Seplat Energy at the company’s office in Ikoyi – Lagos State, on June 5th, 2025.
Farrell led a delegation from the CIPS to make the presentation to the Seplat Energy team led by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Samson Ezugworie; and the General Manager, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Valentine Agwu.
Seplat Energy’s application to be assessed against the CIPS standards started in February 2023. During the period, CIPS-approved assessors reviewed, amongst other criteria, the company’s processes, policies, ways of working, and so on, against 98 elements and across 5 dimensions (categories) used to assess the operations of a supply chain management organisation.
Seplat Energy’s Supply Chain Management (SCM) held the final assessment with a CIPS Advantage Procurement Excellence Programme Independent Verifier on Monday, the 21st of January 2025. Consequently, on Wednesday, 22nd January, CIPS announced that Seplat Energy Plc has been issued with the award.
The CIPS Global CEO observed that the award has only been issued to a few organisations that have demonstrated to be aspirational, continuously obsessed with being better and raising the bar.
Farrell said: “We don’t give these Certificates away, because they are serious, meaningful recognition of that ambition. So, it is designed for hard work and to be rigorous, because we want people to feel at the end of it that they are really proficient, and they are capable of all the things it is designed to do. So, it is a real recognition of your commitment and the team’s commitment. Congratulations to you all.”
The Seplat Energy COO, on behalf of the company and its leadership, expressed deep appreciation to the CIPS team for the transformative journey the Seplat SCM had gone through and gave credit to them, particularly for the thoroughness and vigor in the review process.
Ezugworie said: “For us as Seplat Energy management, we made a deliberate decision to go this route, because Supply Chain is the bedrock of our business. It is the channel of our spend and it is very important to get the channel of your spend on a very right foundation, and perhaps with transparency that this whole process brings.”
He thanked the entire SCM Team, led by Valentine Agwu, for making the company proud and further challenged them on a continuous implementation journey towards the Platinum Category of the certificate, such that sustainability becomes the next level of challenge.
Earlier, the GM SCM, Seplat Energy, had noted that in 2021, Seplat Energy set out on a transformation agenda, which was built around process, people, and systems only. However, the company eventually adopted a CIPS PEP Model upon which to build the transformation.
“It took us two years of rigorous assessment on 5 dimensions, including Leadership and Organisation, Processes and Systems, Strategy and Policy, Performance Management, and People. I am proud to announce that we passed in flying colours, which is why we are here today,” Agwu said.
The SCM function of Seplat Energy Plc has undergone a rigorous assessment by the CIPS UK and adjudged to have successfully met the required standard as set out, for having robust and effective governance processes in place for supply assurance and compliance. This outstanding feat is a result of the process, people and ways of working initiatives that were implemented over the years.
It is worth noting that, by reason of this award, Seplat Energy Plc has set another pace as the first in Nigeria to receive the CIPS Procurement Excellence Standard Award in Nigeria. The company is also the second oil and gas company in Africa to have received the award.
