By Prince Osuagwu
The lingering power or electricity problem in Nigeria has not only reduced the nation to a generator-driven economy but has increased the rate of criminal diversion of diesel  and asset shrinkage which  causes major losses to companies and their finances.

•Philip Chukwueke

But at the recent concluded AfricaCom event, the managing director of CT Communication Towers , Mr Philip Chukwueke, speaks of a solution, CT diesel tracker, that can help to save fuel diversions and asset shrinkage in Nigeria .
Excerpts:

All the way from US, you brought a technology that tracks diesel usage, why do you think that is what Nigerians need at this time?

I am a Nigerian although I have spent several years working in the US. As a Nigerian, I also know that about  40 or 50% of our energy needs in Nigeria today ride on diesel usage. That situation makes it certain that there must be problem of diesel diversion, assets diversion and other related issues; I hate to use the word stolen. In fact some companies have admitted that as much as their 25% investment in diesel used for standby electricity generation is actually diverted. Some of these things are done in- house while some are from unscrupulous truck drivers.

They buy 5000 litres they deliver 4000. We also have a situation where we are facing oil industry deregulation. Somebody   have a petrol station in Yola, or Calabar or Maiduguri or Enugu , Onitsha but he really doesn’t know what is happening. The local staff will give manual reports that are doctored.

But today we can actually say that technology has solved that problem, judging by the efficiency of our CT diesel tracker. What we do with this product is plant the sensors into storage tanks so that diesel delivered into that tank can be measured and monitored instantly.

We can send text messages or emails to our clients anywhere in the world intimating them instantly on how many litres of diesel delivered to their tanks and subsequently give them prompt alerts and reports on usage. This way a lot of wastage and diversions are curtailed. At least we know now that technology can save every aspect of this economy.

Associated to the service is also that we can monitor how much time our clients generators actually run and the fuel consumption. For instance if any of our clients staff reports that he was spending N200,000 on diesel because there was no  NEPA  while there was, we can actually tell because we put a sensor on  the generator  which accumulate the generator run time. If truck drivers have been siphoning diesel and they now know that 5 minutes after they deliver the petrol at the station anywhere in the country, the owner would be alerted, a whole lot of the misinformation, deliberate or unintended will be eliminated.  It is an old technology but we have now customized it and repackaged it to suit our unique environment.
Which areas of the economy are you targeting with this product?

Presently we are in active engagement with some oil companies, with some banking concessions. We are looking for opportunities in the hospitality and tourism industry such as hotels.

Have you imagined how places like the new 1004 flats in Victoria Island would be managed without managing the cost of energy. Majority of these big luxury flats in Lagos metropolis all run 24/7 on diesel. The question is how can they monitor diesel consumption? checkmate diversion and ensure accurate delivery? That is what we have brought home and I think this country needs it.

Telecom companies in Nigeria consume a lot of diesel in delivering their services, since this is a technological solution have you introduced it to them and what are their responses to it?

Their responses have been encouraging. However, big companies take time to study technologies before adapting to it. We have discussed with a lot of them and they are studying the product.

I do expect that may be in the next one month we would begin technical trial. Although, a lot of the operators have outsourced their diesel supply to third parties.

So the third parties are the ones that are now bearing the risk of theft. As we speak, we are in discussion with one of the biggest companies managing services for the big GSM companies in Nigeria and most likely they are going to use our tool. However we also have a facility running in Yankari, Games Reserves as we speak.

It gives instant information as to how much diesel has been used daily in Yankari. It is based on text messaging, we put GSM, CDMA SIM card in the unit and that SIM card continuously reports the depth of asset in the tank.

I assume that this product is electronic and may require electric power. How does the device function in the face of erratic power supply in Nigeria?
We use different types of sensors, some of the sensors use batteries that will last for two or three years; others do not.

For those that will not, if it is a location that must have power 24/7 that means that they would have electric generator and in that case we can use the generator. But in some cases for a very small additional cost we can also package the solution with solar.

That is the most preferred solution; it eliminates power surge and save a lot of power headache
What if those you are blocking from diverting the diesels decided to damage it at a far away location, how would you monitor activity within those hours the device is not working?

Well, there is no way we can prevent it from begin vandalized. We can try to protect it but it may still be vandalized. However, there is precision in this technology that alerts exactly when vandalisation is done and we would inform our clients immediately.

With that kind of precision you will know who to hold responsible if you tell them the time it was vandalized. There has been a suggestion that we package the product with hidden camera so that if something happens we can go back. That is a possibility but it depends on how much a company can afford.