There were obvious cracks but those who should know probably papered over them. Sometime in June 2019, Mrs. Grace Olowofeyeku, the Group Managing Director (GMD) and Chief Executive Officer of Ascon Oil Group, a company involved in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, granted an interview to The Sun newspaper wherein she described how hellish it is doing business in Nigeria while also listing some of the factors that negatively affect businesses in the country.
She said; “Doing business in Nigeria is like hell. It can suck up all your energy because of the various government agencies you have to deal with daily. You fail at every attempt to succeed because you have too many bottlenecks to contend with.”
She said further, “For some years now, the oil industry has witnessed a lot of instability as a result of currency instability and government policies. It has made it hard to plan. We used to bring in cargoes of fuel from abroad but now this is not possible, resulting in scarcity of the products for our numerous stations and a drastic reduction in margins. The business has been so negatively affected that we now struggle to pay workers’ salaries in spite of massive cuts in staff strength.”
Mrs Enemoh added for emphasis, “It is by the grace of God that we have not totally shut down. Government has been lacking the political will to allow open pricing of petroleum products. Subsidy retention has been a great constraint on our business.”
If the interview underscored the fact that she was fast losing her grip on a company founded in 1984 by her late husband, help, still, didn’t come from any quarter to salvage the sinking ship of ASCON Oil Now, the lawyer turned oil mogul has sold off ASCON Oil. Details are still sketchy as per the identity of the buyer(s) but the sale is a pointer to the fact that Mrs Enemoh had reached her tether’s end and had let go of the company.
Ascon Oil was incorporated on 4th December 1984 and commenced business in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry in 1985. The company started operations initially in Kano and got its NNPC/PPMC bulk purchase agreement signed in 1988 as an independent petroleum products marketer. In 1999, the company completed the construction of a bulk storage terminal at Ibru Port complex with a capacity of 35,000 MT and a loading capacity of 3million litres per day overseeing the Northern branches of Abuja, Kaduna, Gombe and Maiduguri. It also maintains offices in Port Harcourt, Warri, Kano and Abuja.
With a mission to be Africa’s most innovative, principled and value-driven oil and gas company, Ascon describes itself as the principled energy company you can count on to deliver value pragmatically because of its people-centric approach, committed professionals and prudent management.
However, the founder of the company, Barrister George Enenmoh died in the Bellview Airlines flight 210, a Boeing 737-200 that crashed on October 22, 2005, shortly after taking off from Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. He left behind ASCON, his wife, Grace and five children.
A few years later, the grief of the loss had dissipated or so, hence, Grace remarried. Her new spouse was Bankole Olowofoyeku, an accountant cum contractor for ASCON Oil. Their secret wedding held in London. The role he played in the sale of ASCON is not yet known but the Enemoh kids are reportedly happy with the development.
