By Ejekwu Chidiebere
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, Seplat media team has said in a statement.
The CEO CIPS (worldwide) Ben Farrell was reported to have made the presentation to Seplat Energy at the company’s office in Ikoyi – Lagos State on June 5th 2025. Energy Window International (Media) gathered that Farrell who led a delegation from the CIPS had made the presentation to Seplat Energy team led by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Samson Ezugworie; and the General Manager, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Valentine Agwu.
Energy Window International (Media) had also learnt that Seplat Energy first submitted an application for assessment against the CIPS standards sometime 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 organization.”
“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 who have demonstrated to be aspirational, continuingly 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.”
While commending CIPS for a job well done 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.”
The entire SCM team led by Valentine Agwu also got a pat on the back 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.”
The GM SCM of Seplat Energy the statement disclosed had earlier noted that in 2021, the company set out on a transformation agenda just on procedures and processes, people and systems before it finally considered adopting a CIPS PEP Model as the most veritable option upon which to build its transformation.
“It took us two years of rigorous assessment on 5 dimensions including Leadership and Organization, Processes and System, 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.
“It is worthy to note 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.”