The Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti on Friday, inaugurated 16 Commissioners, whose nominations were screened and confirmed by the Abia State House of Assembly between July 03 and July 04, 2023, at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Umuahia.
Mr. Philemon Asonye Ogbonna, who was assigned the Ministry of Environment and Urban Renewal, was among those that took the oath of office to serve Abia State.
Ogbonna is the Chairman of Cafajuc Investment Limited, a financial services company located at Trans Amadi, a high brow area in the city of Port Harcourt.
He worked with the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC, and retired voluntarily after 23 years of uninterrupted service.
He is well rounded in Accounting and Finance management, and has twenty seven years post graduation extensive experience in Auditing, Budgeting and Costs control, Accounts payable and Receivables, Accounts reconciliation, Indirect tax issues and Treasury operations.
His competences cut across, but not limited to the following areas; Customer and external focus, building shared vision and maximizing business opportunities, networking and interpersonal effectiveness.
Ogbonna is also conversant with business re-engineering processes ranging from business partnering, business performance, stakeholder management, process simplification to compliance monitoring.
The new Abia Commissioner is at home with managing delivery of quality and timely budget performance, ensuring that effective cost control and cost reduction policies are in place in addition to ensuring that tax and tax issues are professionally handled within record time.
While in the SPDC, Ogbonna was the Joint Venture (JV) Audit and Stakeholder Liaison, managing the interface between SPDC’s critical business functions and Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Agip, Chevron and TotalfinaElf.
He was EA (Sea Eagle) Asset Accountant between July 2010 and April 2012, and was specifically responsible for Final Year Budget. Other responsibilities he held were; Accounts Receivable and Indirect Tax, Accountant, Business Support Accountant, Bank Reconciliation Accountant, Cash and Banking Assistant and Contracts Payment Accountant.
Ogbonna is a product of many managerial courses, some of which are; Investigative/Auditing and Problem Solving Techniques, and Interpersonal Skills from the Lagos Business School, Pan African University, Budgeting and Budgetary Control Processes and Procedures, Fraud Risk Management, Business Principles and Ethics, and Technology Competency Initiative.
Before joining SPDC, Ogbonna was a teacher with the Nigerian Navy Primary School, Borokiri, Port Harcourt.
He was Treasurer of the apex socio-cultural organisation in his Local Government Area, Ukwa West, Abia State, Asa Development Union, ADU.
Ogbonna, born in Owaza, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, (ICAN), Associate Member, Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), holds a Master degree in Business Administration, and Bachelor of Science, BSc. in Accountancy obtained from Nigerian Universities – Federal University of Technology, FUTO, Owerri, and Abia State University, Uturu.
He was also a graduate of Federal Teachers College, Uzuakoli, Asa High School, Asa, and Owaza Central School, Owaza, all in Abia State.
Among his awards and honours are; 20 Years Long Service Award, SPDC, 15 Years Long Service Award, SPDC, and 10 Years Long Service Award, SPDC.
He is happily married with two boys and two girls.
