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How She Co-Runs It With Her Husband
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Becomes Member, Advisory Council, ODU’A Invest. Foundation
There is a popular filling station called BOVAS with branches across the South West. It is one of the few well run filling station where very many people like to buy fuel.
The branded tankers of the company are all over, ferrying fuel across the South-West states. Many don’t know the owner of the company, which has become a big brand today.
City People can authoritatively reveal that the company is owned by Dr. Mrs. Victoria Adunola Samson popularly called Mama BOVAS and her husband. Both don’t like publicity which explains why they have both kept a low profile over the years.
Mama BOVAS was born to a great family of Iree origin in Boripe Local Government, Osun State, was born a baby girl on December 05, 1949. The small girl grew up in the knowledge and fear of GOD. Growing up, she had her secondary education at Ilesa Grammar School. As a damsel, her love for GOD deepened significantly. She advanced her self-development strategy into a personal business and has achieved the status of being a GOD-fearing businesswoman per excellence, focused on delivering value with integrity while maintaining professionalism with an unclouded vision as a goal-getter, team player, and exemplary leader.
The girl of then and grandmother of today is Dr. Mrs. Victoria Adunola Samson, also known as Mama BOVAS, the Managing Director of BOVAS and Company Limited, a leading marketer and distributor of petroleum products in Nigeria. She co-founded BOVAS and Company Ltd in 1980 with her husband, and she saddles the overall responsibility for corporate strategy and direction, business implementation, and performance delivery of the Group. She has played the role of formulating and successfully implementing company policy. She immersed her intellect into directing strategy toward the profitable growth and operation of the company. Her focus has been developing strategic operating plans that reflect the longer-term objectives and priorities established by the Board. Her daily target is to ensure that the operating objectives and standards of performance are understood and owned by the management and other employees. She oversees developing and implementing businesses building and maintaining client relationships within the economy, the petroleum products industry, and many others.
With her at the helm, BOVAS and Company Limited has achieved tremendous milestones by growing the retail arm of the business from one petroleum products service station to over one hundred and eighty-five (185) as of the beqinninq of 2023. Dr. Mrs. Samson led the Company to build a twenty-two thousand Metric Tonnes (22,OOOMT) capacity storage facility for white petroleum products situated at Kirikiri, Apapa, Lagos, and to acquire another forty thousand Metric Tonnes (40,OOOMT) capacity storage facility at Ibafon, Apapa, Lagos State, both with the capacity to load over ten million (10m) liters of products daily at capacity. Her prowess made the company build a lubricant plant with a total of forty million (40m) liters per annum of different lubricant grades. Advancing the business of BOVAS, she led the company to establish a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant with additional LPG skids in over thirty-five (35) locations as at ending of 2022. Her business acumen propelled the company to acquire and operate a fleet of haulage trucks that are over three hundred (300) in number.
As of today, Dr. Mrs. Samson has led the BOVAS business group to employ over thousand five hundred (1,500) Nigerians full-time, with many more on a part-time basis. Currently, she is leading a strategic re-organization of BOVAS and Company Limited to position it for a better future in terms of both stakeholder and shareholder value with more profitability in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Dr. Mrs. Samson started operations with the Texaco Petroleum Franchise of Texaco Nigeria Plc. She emerged as the first Nigerian to win the highly competitive Texaco Latin America and West Africa (LAWA) Award for Best Overall Dealer in 1990. She recorded the highest sales in West Africa and Latin America while delivering the best customer service!
Dr. Mrs. VA Samson has held many leadership positions in the oil and gas sector. She has served as the Matron, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), NNPC/PPMC Satellite Depot, Ejigbo, Lagos State, and Apata Depot, Ibadan, Oyo State. She is a Board of Trustees, Depot, and Petroleum Products Marketing Association (DAPPMA) member.
Dr. Mrs. V.A Samson has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees by many universities, such as Ladoke Akintola University (LAUTECH), Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU), Osun State University (UNIOSUN), and she holds a Professional Diploma in Marketing. She is an alumnus of Harvard University Business School Leadership for Family in Business program and the Lagos Business School Chief Executive Program at Lagos Business School, Lagos, and IESE Barcelona, Spain. Also, She has attended various other courses, seminars, and trainings on management, strategy, and leadership in Nigeria and internationally.
Dr (Mrs) V. A Samson is a member of the Institute of Directors (100) Nigeria. A co-founder of the Bovas Charitable Foundation (BCF), a holder of many Rotary Paul Harris Fellows and many other distinguished awards to her credit, she is also a matron of various social and charitable organizations.
The Nigeria Presidential Award for Bovas among the Top 100 businesses in Nigeria in 2014. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director (GMD) award for Excellence in 2018, The Excellence Performance Award of Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) multiple times, and The Humanist Award by the Nigerian Union of Journalists in 2020. She has received many various excellence and leadership awards from the Federal Road Safety Corporation (FRSC), Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Nigerian Army, University of Ibadan, Federal University of Technology, Ado Ekiti, Oyo State College of Agriculture, Igbo-Ora and various other universities and many more. She is the Ambassador of Peace of the International Youth Reformation Organization, Nigeria, and the International Peace Youth Group, South Korea.
A widely traveled woman, she is married to Arc. Bamidele O. Samson has children and grandchildren, and she is the Senior Mother-in-Israel of Cherubim and seraphim church, Ooreofe Alayo, Ibadan, Oyo State, with a passion for GOD.
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