Eterna Appoints Obiagwu to Replace Tukur as MD/CEO

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The current Chief Operating Officer of Eterna Plc, Mr Nnamdi Obiagwu, has been appointed to replace the present Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr Mahmud Tukur.

Mr Tukur is expected to retire with effect from August 31, 2020, having successfully completed a maximum tenure of 10 years.

In line with the succession policy of the company, the board has approved the appointment of Mr Obiagwu to fill the position effective September 1, 2020.

In a statement, the company said it will miss the “passion and exemplary leadership” of the outgoing boss, wishing him the very best in his future endeavours.

He joined the board as a non-executive director on September 3, 2004, and was appointed MD/CEO on June 1, 2010.

Mr Tukur has been the driving force in the transformation of the company over the last 10 years, the statement noted.

It said under his leadership, Eterna experienced a year-on-year increase in its annual turnover from N9 billion at the end of 2009 to N229 billion as at December 31, 2019.

The company’s net assets grew from N3.9 billion in 2009 to N12.4 billion as at December 31, 2019, from internally generated cash flows.

The board declared and paid dividends for the first time in its history during his tenure, a feat which was sustained in subsequent years.

Over the past decade, the organisation’s fortunes have been completely transformed, with the expansion of its retail stations from 10 to 60 retail outlets, including mega stations strategically located in major cities nationwide.

It was observed that the lubricants business has also witnessed strong growth from its expanded relationship with Castrol across the lubricants value chain.

The firm’s continuous investment in its state-of-the-art lubricant blending plant located at Sagamu, Ogun State is a key pillar in the deployment of its lubricants strategy and was pivotal in its recent selection by NNPC Retail as its lubricant manufacturing partner following a competitive bidding process.

The company’s business activities were further diversified into international trading of crude oil, condensate, LPG and crude for product swap contracts and have led to very strong relationships with major global trading companies and refiners.

Mr Tukur conceptualised and oversaw project LEAP, which commenced with Business Process Re-engineering and led to the automation of key processes and the successful deployment of an ERP.

The development of a long-term strategic blueprint, a robust Performance Management System, Enterprise Risk Management Framework (ERM) and a Corporate Governance Framework bespoke for the company were all undertaken as part of corporate transformation initiatives under project LEAP.