The chairman of CITA Energies, Dr Thomas Ogungbangbe, has described how the company grew from a one-man operation into a business with facilities worth nearly $200m.
He spoke on Friday at the firm’s 20th anniversary celebration. The event took place at the Grandeur Event Centre, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos.
Ogungbangbe said the business began with very little. Its papers were kept in the boot and on the back seat of his car.
“CITA started right inside my living room and my car,” he said.
Two decades later, the firm operates at 17 airports across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. It also supplies aviation fuel abroad through a network that spans several continents.
He added that CITA is now the largest indigenous aviation fuel company by facilities in Nigeria and West Africa.
From a former venture to a new company
CITA was established in 2006. Before then, Ogungbangbe had been involved in an earlier aviation fuel business, which later became part of the Sahara Group.
At the time, shifts in government petroleum policy were opening the sector to local players. Multinational oil firms had long controlled it.
The chairman credited the company’s growth to resilience, favourable policies and strategic partnerships. He also thanked the staff who kept the business running in a difficult operating climate.
He stressed that the work never pauses. Fuel suppliers must stay on duty on weekends and public holidays, he said, because planes cannot fly without fuel.
“As long as aircraft are flying in the sky, you must be on the ground pumping fuel,” he said.
A documentary shown at the event traced the company’s path. It started at the first base in Port Harcourt and ended with today’s network of facilities.
Ogungbangbe also paid tribute to the pioneer employees, successive management teams, customers and partners. He recalled that the first workers laboured through heavy rain and strong sunshine to set the business up.
Dignitaries at the event
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, was represented by his Special Adviser, Janet Oputa.
Also present were the Managing Director of Ibom Air, George Uriesi, and the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of United Nigeria Airlines, Rapheal Uchegbu. CITA Energies’ Managing Director, Titilayo Olaore, was among the guests too.
Four traditional rulers graced the occasion. They were the Alapomu of Apomu, Oba Kayode Adenekan Afolabi, Atoyebi II; the Owaloko of Iloko-Ijesa, Oba Akeem Olusayo Ogungbangbe, Ajagbusi-Ekun VI; the Oniyaomebi of Olorunsogo, Ijesaland, Oba Oluwaseun Oniyaomebi; and the Aragbiji of Iragbiji, Oba Abdur-Rasheed Ayotunde Olabomi, Odundun IV.
