By EDITH IKE-EBOH

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it has developed a COVID-19 contact-tracing software application that can be deployed in all its locations across the country.

The corporation disclosed this in a statement issued by its spokesman, Dr Kennie Obateru, in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said the idea was in line with the Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) agenda of the present leadership of the corporation.

According to him, it also shows the commitment to continually deploy Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for the purposes of operational efficiency and accountability within the corporation’s system.

He quoted the corporation’s Group General Manager, Information Technology Division (ITD), Danladi Inuwa, as saying that the novel app was part of the NNPC’s sectoral contribution to curb spread of the pandemic within its formations, ministries, departments and agencies of the government.

“The Contacts-Tracing Solution is ready to be deployed, all the technical testing has been done and the solution is ready to go live.

“Everywhere you go around NNPC locations will be covered by this novel application, which will reveal all information about persons visiting any official.

“Should there be any medical challenge, the NNPC Medical will be able to track from the information at the data base all the contacts and advise properly,” Inuwa said.

He said the application could also be used by members of staff of the corporation to document their private visitors at their homes.

The group general manager added that the novel application would enable the workforce to adjust adequately to the ‘new normal’ way of living to minimise spread of the disease.

Inuwa further said the corporation had also deployed a Sales and Distribution application in the Oil and Gas Secondary Model Portal that would enable marketers buy petroleum products online.

This, he said, was to minimise human contacts in business transactions at the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a Downstream subsidiary of NNPC, in the face of COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the application, known as the Customer Express, would also enable marketers to register, validate and revalidate their Bulk Purchase Agreements online within a week.

He added that the portal would provide a dashboard that would enable the corporation to track every molecule of products being imported, transported and sold at every given time.

“The Portal shows what product is in transit in terms of volume, what quantity is in the jetty, what volume has gone into the pipelines, what quantity has gone into NNPC depots, private depots and refinery depots.

“So, we have accurate accounting of every molecule of products that we have in our system,” he said

Inuwa said already, members of Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) are now purchasing products online seamlessly.

He added that the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) and other relevant downstream stakeholders are expected to start transacting business on the platform soon.

He stated that an application that can show the volume of stocks in the tanks of all NNPC Retail stations across the country had equally been deployed and the ticketing digitised, affirming that more technological innovations would be deployed in the months ahead.

Inuwa said that despite the recent lockdown in the country, the NNPC business value chains were not affected as the corporation was well-prepared.

He explained that the NNPC had over 4,000 virtual meetings, 9.3 million minutes of audio time, 6.7 million minutes of video time and 2.1 million minutes of screen shared times.

He added that the robust IT business continuity plan had enhanced the corporation’s workforce efficiency. (NAN)

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