Fuelmetrics, a company that provides end-to-end technology for operators in the petroleum downstream industry, has created a product called E-Pump that will help petrol pump stations with the services needed in the industry.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fuelmetrics Limited, Ayodeji Ogundiran, in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, has also revealed that the company has begun to internally make the transition to electronic vehicles so that they can be able to provide products for Nigeria when the country fully transits from fossil fuels to electric vehicles.
Explaining how E-Pump works, Ogundiran said, “We install IOT equipment into your pumps. This equipment is connecting directly to your pump, every transaction that is made on the pump is recorded. You sold 5 litres, you sold 10 litres, you sold 100 litres, all of it is recorded and then sent to a cloud platform, where you as the station owner or management can access it from your laptop, from your mobile app, as long as you have internet connectivity, you know what’s going on in your station, that’s for the pump.
“There’s also the part of the tank – what’s in my tank? When I receive new inventory, what did I receive, and stuff like that. There’s also the bit of payment. It’s one thing to know I sold 10,000 litres. The next question then becomes ‘where is the money?’. E-Pump can connect to your PoS, connect to your bank account. So, we can give you that dashboard that tells you end to end, on, this is how much you’ve made, this is where it is, this is what’s missing, this is what needs to be accounted for.”
He also said that the Fuelmetrics dashboard can also contain the pricing template of petroleum and the breakdown of fuel price.
He however said, “I think that’s not a problem even outside us. I mean, the government is clear about their pricing template. We know what the landing costs are, we know what fees are levied by each segment, we know what the transportation costs are. The challenge with fuel is not about the template. It’s about the fact that, one, fuel is a liquid product, so it’s not like when I’m selling physical products. If I’m selling laptops, I can tell you, oh, I have 10 laptops in stock. If I say I have 10 litres in stock, what exactly does 10 litres mean? It could mean so many things depending on the metrology method I’m using to measure. And because of that, it could be loss invincibility. It’s easy for me to tell you this is what you’re selling on your pump, and in the natural fact, it’s not.
“So, it’s not about the pricing template, I think the pricing template, everybody knows the pricing template. Let’s be honest, we know fuel is not exactly priced expensive in Nigeria, it’s forex that makes it look a bit expensive, I don’t think we have a challenge with that.”
Speaking on Fuelmetrics’ reach, he said, “We deal mostly with businesses, not states at the moment. Because of the nature of stations, take for example you pick a brand, that brand is probably likely to have stations across maybe 20 states or maybe all the 26 states. So, when such a brand engages us, of course we have to deploy everywhere. So, as of today, we have stations in every state of the country using e-pump.”
He then revealed that Fuelmetrics is preparing for the transition to olectric vehicles, as he said, “We are also actually building electric chargers which can be deployed commercially or in your homes, whatever the case may be. We know Nigeria is not there yet, it’s a journey for Nigeria, and we are making that transition internally. By the time Nigeria is ready to really transit from fossil fuels to EVs, then yes, E-pump will be there to provide the same technology as well.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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