— Ben Ayenge
Mr. Ben Ayenge is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Apex Oil Aviation, an aircraft fueling company based in Abuja. In this interview, he spoke with Yange Ikyaa about his motivation to set up the company and how it has been keeping high standards to ensure quality service delivery to its broad range of customers. Excerpts:
Kindly tell us about yourself and your company, what you do, and how you have been doing it so far.
Thank you so much for the privilege. I am Mr. Ben Ayenge. I am the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Apex Oil Aviation. We are into the fueling of aircraft.
For now, we operate in Abuja and Lagos Airports. We are into general aircraft refueling but, for now, we are basically handling mostly private airlines and private jets.
By that, you mean that you can also fuel military planes?
Yes, we have been fueling military planes like the Nigerian Air Force and the Nigeria Police too. We supply fuel to them, even for their helicopters. Helicopters consume very little fuel and, most times, when it comes to the police, they always want to have fuel so that at any time they are called upon, they would be ready with fuel in their helicopters. This is because if they do not have fuel in reserve, before they can call a marketer to come and fuel the helicopters all the way from the depot, a lot of time might be wasted. So because of the urgency of their work, anytime they are called upon, they need to be ready, which is why most times, they request for fuel into their barrels so that they can fuel their helicopters themselves.
They have a plane too, and we fuel the plane directly. But when it comes to the helicopters, it depends; sometimes, they ask us to fuel it directly and, sometimes, they could ask us to put it in reserve.
We handle private jets and we also fuel commercial jets too. We have been fueling Azman, we fuel Triax, and now we are about to start fueling Anap Jets.
How about the international airlines, have you considered working with them or do you have any relationship?
We do, of course. We are projecting to grow bigger than this, bigger than where we are. But for now we have not yet ventured into that based on our capacity. You know, the international airlines, most especially the commercial ones, have very large capacity planes that consume a lot, so they like giving contracts to bigger companies that can sustain them over the years.
But you are surely getting there?
Yes, we will get there. It is step by step, although we have been fueling some private jets that are international for now.
Before starting this company, where were you in this industry; what has been your previous record to have taken you to this level of responsibility in the aviation industry of the largest economy in Africa?
Well, I actually started in 1997 with Oando Aviation. At that time, it was just the major marketers that were involved in aviation; the license was not given to other marketers. So, Oando was one of the major marketers, but they were the last to come into aviation, among the major marketers. So, when they started in Lagos, I joined them; I was the third set that joined them. We started with two operational staff and I was part of the third batch in 1997. It was at that time called Unipetrol Aviation and later became Oando, when it was privatized.
I worked with them for 12 years and I later joined Ascon Aviation in Lagos and worked with Ascon for six years and, then, I resigned finally to start up my own business. You know, I have stayed in the industry for a long time, so at least I should build people too and build the industry as well.
What really informed your decision to take on this challenge, it is challenging to start a business in an environment like this. What really gave you the motivation, focus and reason to start up this company?
Well, the aviation industry, as you know, has been expanding and we now have more airlines. And as a result, we need to have more oil marketers to attend to them. If you are traveling, you usually hear about a lot of stories concerning delays as a result of the lack of fuel and this is because the players in the industry are not yet enough.
So, there is a demand that, as the airlines are growing, the oil marketers should grow as well in order to meet up with the growing industry demand. Personally, to me, I feel that the aviation industry is not a business anybody just goes into. It is being handled by experts in the business, people that know how the business is being done.
Now, we are talking about safety here. When we talk about fueling an aircraft, this task can be very hazardous, it has a lot of hazards. So, it is one of the main safety points, one of the first steps that airlines watch out for. Before a plane can fly, they must check the fuel. It must have fuel and the fuel must be standard and of good quality. This is because if you give the wrong type of fuel, the plane itself might not even fly. And not just that, if the fuel has dirt or water in it, it could cause some damages to the engine.
So, there is a lot of tests to carry out on it before use, a lot of quality control is needed in this. It is an industry that is not really handled by people that just come into the business but by people that have grown into the industry and have known steps on how to handle the safety aspect.
Like, talking about myself, I have gone through a lot of safety courses. I have a lot of certificates because, in the industry, we usually grow by going through these trainings on how to handle fuel. This is basically on the safety aspect of it, to ensure that you are giving quality fuel to your customers to ensure their safety as they fly, because in aviation, they say that there is no parking space in the air (laughter). And if you give dirty fuel, it could cause some havoc to the plane, and once the plane has an issue over there, you know what happens; there is no parking space over there, you can’t correct it, you know, it has to be fatal.
We don’t leave any stone unturned when it comes to aviation; we don’t compromise safety. So, we go through the necessary safety trainings to the full, and this takes years for one to go through. I have been in the industry for more than 26 years and there is no year we don’t go on safety trainings or reminder courses. You have to be reminded of safety all the time, so I go through these trainings with different companies that come up with the trainings. Sometimes, we go for training abroad, sometimes within the country.
What specific challenges can you say that are common while running a business like this in Nigeria, and how are you navigating through them?
The major challenge we have is unavailability of fuel. Sometimes the major marketers that import this fuel go through a lot of problems with the government, taxes and all that. So, most times, when there is a shortage of supply over there and down at the jetties at Apapa, it affects we the end buyers that supply to the airlines. So, most times, that is the challenge.
Another challenge is, when you operate in Abuja, all the fuel comes from Lagos. That is the trucking of the fuel coming from Lagos to Abuja usually encounters challenges like breakdown of the trucks on the road. Sometimes, it could be accidents and, sometimes, rain too. As a result of this, you could have delays for days. It might take the truck days to move from Lagos to Abuja with the supplies.
And, then, some other criminal acts by the transporters. For instance, all these motor boys trying to drain that fuel on the road. Sometimes you buy a full truck of about 40,000 liters in Lagos and by the time it reaches Abuja, you discover you have like 39,000 liters or sometimes even as low as 37,000 liters. Another challenge we have is from people trying to sell adulterated fuel. But what we do is that, when the fuel comes, we put it through the normal tests to ascertain the quality of the fuel before we accept it from the person that has transported it to us.
How do you carry out all of the tests?
We have some tools that we use in doing that. There are some quality checks that we perform to determine that.
If the consignment fails the test, you reject it?
Yes, we reject it.
And the supplier takes it back?
Yes, it is returned back to the supplier.
And this is contractual?
That is why when you buy the fuel, there is a certificate given for the particular batch of fuel that is coming and this is a certificate from the depot to the delivery point.
So, you have to put that certificate under test on arrival?
Yes.
Is it a standard procedure in the industry?
Yes.
So if it goes fine, you take it, but if it fails the test, you will return it and they will refund your money or they resupply?
Straight away; they can resupply or refund your money.
So what is your plan for the future; where do you want to be in the next five years or 10 years or beyond; what are your plans for expansion?
That’s a good question. Of course anybody in business would like to grow to the peak of their industry and, for that, there are strategies on how to grow, and where you start; you can’t just say let me grow. For Apex Oil Aviation, our target has been and will always be to cover the country in all major airports. But we must start from one step to another step.
Now, we have branches in Abuja and Lagos, we have plans to expand to Owerri and, of course, you know, I am from Benue and my plan was for the cargo airport to be opened, that is if the government was going to be realistic about their plans on it, and Apex Oil Aviation was hoping to be the first fueling company in Makurdi.
But that notwithstanding, we are still working on plans on how to move to Nasarawa, as there is a functioning cargo airport over there. So, we plan to operate from there because cargo planes usually need fuel when they land, and the airport might not function if there is no marketing company available to sell fuel. This is because airplanes don’t just take any volume of fuel and fly, they usually take fuel based on the weight balance. If they are carrying load, the load has to be calculated, the passengers have to be calculated against the weight of the fuel in order to balance the plane to be able to take off very well and also land at its destination very well.
So, if there is no fueling company in Nasarawa State, it is going to make it very difficult for planes to drop down and then move with load.
How about the workforce for when you want to expand; is it readily available or will you have a challenge of getting the type of people you want for the industry?
Yes, that is a big challenge, because this is not an industry where you just employ people. The training costs a lot. If we want to train, we send people abroad for training and, judging by the economy, sending somebody over there for training is not a small cost. So, getting people to get in the workforce is one of the most difficult things. And that is why most times, most companies go for people that already have experience in order to cut down the cost of training.
And, then, when you want to get the people with experience, when you check, you discover most of them are people that were involved in fraud. And we won’t work with those kinds of people, so it is obviously a very challenging issue for us.
What makes you think that you are a better company to be patronized?
Well, in talking about that, the first thing that comes to mind is quality. Like how we handle our fuel. That is what I know that we do not compromise. Before we deliver fuel to anybody, we conduct tests in our depot, and then conduct it again in front of the customer for them to certify that the fuel we are giving them is quality. And there are some instruments we use in checking this. If the pilot demands for a sample of the fuel to check the quality to ascertain that it is okay. So, we are always very sure of that.
Then talking about the equipment we are using, they are standard equipment. Another benefit of patronizing us is the promptness to the airline’s demands, getting to them on time. And, then, another very important thing is giving the fuel at affordable prices. We always want to be sure that we are lower than the major marketers. We are not looking for a fast profit. Let’s give the best we can.