The Gambia National Petroleum Corporation, GNPC, has recently convened a strategic plan development and review workshop.
The workshop was initiated by Managing Director Baboucarr Njie, who wanted, for the first time, a functional corporate strategy for the organisation.
A consulting firm SMD Policy Management Group was engaged to develop it for the Corporation and on hand were upstream experts from Ghana National Petroleum Corporation namely the GM Strategy & Investments, Dr Kwame Baah Nuakoh and lead petroleum engineer and deputy manager projects, Theophilus Mensah. The two men came under the framework of the GNPC Gambia-GNPC Ghana MoU to guide and enhance the process alongside downstream expert and former GNPC board vice chairman Mr. Bakary Jammeh.
The three-day brainstorming exercises clearly articulated a roadmap for GNPC for 2023-2027
The managing director, Baboucarr Njie, told the workshop about the need and importance of a strategic plan for the Corporation to determine the direction of the organisation as well as guide all budgetary and operational plans going forward.
MD Njie further pledged that his management will work with the consultant, SMD Consulting, from formulation through to the finalisation process to ensure that a well-structured and fit for purpose strategic plan is developed. “This will help in mapping out a direction of the Corporation’s vision and mission statements which guide staff through their planned activities and enable them to clearly articulate and meet job objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs),” Mr Njie said.
Bakary Jammeh, former board vice chairman of the Corporation, an expert in the downstream sector, advised all stakeholders to ensure the Strategic document implementation becomes a reality as a lot of effort and work will be put into it. He further stated that he was confident that with the mind-set of the MD and the young vibrant staff of GNPC, the Corporation will create huge success stories and the Strategic Plan will sail through the validation process.
A the end of the review, the GNPC found the insights and contributions of the invited experts to be invaluable throughout the process and is particularly grateful for the invaluable insights and contributions from the Ghanaian delegates given the evolution of GNPC Ghana as a leading NOC prior to and post commercial discoveries in Ghana.
The Consultant together with GNPC Management developed strategies based on the following pillars;
Pillar 1: Assessment of the Legal and Institutional Framework (Discussions on the Act, Statutes, Mandate, Governance, Organisational set-up, relationship (roles and responsibilities) with the Ministry and the Petroleum Commission, etc.
Pillar 2: Assessment of the Existing and Potential Capacities (technical, material, and human resources) assess existing capacities, tools, and processes and GNPC’s readiness to position itself (competitive advantage) particularly for the potential upstream.
Pillar 3: Modernising and Strengthening Downstream Activities (modernizing the stations, product/service diversification, ICT, solarisation initiatives, potential for mid-stream (fuel depot, refineries, etc.)
Pillar 4: Upstream Activities (readiness for potential activities upstream – financing models and readiness for participation in upstream activities, in terms of capacities – technical and human)
Pillar 5: Assessment of Partnerships and Financing (Discussions on the resource mobilization strategy/plan & tools, partnerships with sister corporations in the sub-region, etc.)
Work groups were created to do detailed SWOT Analyses, identify Main Challenges, formulate new and fit for purpose Mission, Vision statements and Core Values for the corporation and also devise an implementation plan for the pillars above. All the groups presented and other group members contributed to each presentation, The Consultant is given until 31st August 2023, to send a final submission to management after which the document will be validated. This will be followed by series of consultations and trainings for staff on how to effectively implement the Strategic Plan.
