“Collaboration, key to Tanzania’s oil, gas growth” – Imran
Imran Pishori, C.E.O, AP Central
In this interview, Hussein Boffu sit with Imran Pishori, C.E.O at AP Central to discuss the importance of collaboration between local service providers and foreign counterpart in enhancing industry growth.
Briefly tell us how you found the oil and gas industry?
I was born and raised in Tanzania. In 1996 I left Tanzania to come to the United States to start University.
After graduating, I started my career at Burns& McDonnell Engineering in 2002 where I was involved with Engineering, Design and Construction projects.
In 2008 I joined Quicksource Inc. a procurement company as Vice President gaining experience in all aspects of the Business.
With the combination of both Engineering and Procurement, I started AP Central to stream line the process of helping clients navigate from Engineering (if needed), to RFP to Procurement. We help you optimize your supply chain solutions.
In formal life I am Professional Engineer (PE) with 10 years’ experience supplying Maintenance, Repair and Operation (MRO) parts to Egypt, Qatar, Trinidad, Argentina, UAE and Tanzania.
Tell us a little bit what does your company do?
AP Central allows you to streamline your purchasing needs with a one stop center. This includes the whole process from Request for Proposal, Engineering, Procurement, Order History, Expediting, Packing, Export Documentation, delivery to freight forwarder or directly to your end destination. AP Central has all your needs
Headquartered in Houston Texas, the oil capital of the USA, AP Central is strategically located to serve all our clients’ needs with major industries and freight forwarders located in close proximity.
How does collaboration between local service providers and the foreign counterpart could enhance the local industry growth.?
Collaboration between local service providers and foreign counterpart can enhance any project. The local expertise is needed to build the relationship with the end user and then work with the foreign counterpart to get the project done. Currently there are very few manufacturers of equipment in Tanzania to support the growth in Tanzania and most of the equipment and material will need to be imported. Therefore a fluid collaboration is needed between the local and foreign companies to provide a seamless transition from Engineering to RFQ to Procurement to Shipping to Installation and finally to Commission.
There is a complaints some services providers are delivering poor quality services and missing schedule , How true is this and do you have any internal mechanism to handle that?
It is very true that there are many poor service providers. It is very important when the end user awards a bid to a company, they not only look at price but research the company they are awarding the bid to. Many service providers are single owned enterprises with no experience, financial issues, etc and will regularly quote low prices but in the short and long term the end user will be negatively impacted due to low quality goods, delay of schedule, no follow up service etc. If there are any issues and they have been paid, the low quality providers will move on and not work with the end user to fix the issue.
AP Central has a dedicated team that expedites all orders and provides weekly updates to the end user showing the progress of all orders. We also buy the products from reputable ISO certified companies to ensure the best quality product is being delivered. Our goal is to build a long term relationship with the end user and this is accomplished by providing quality products in a timely manner and providing any support the end user needs even after the material is used and commissioned.
If somebody wants to learn more about what you, where they should go?
They have to visit www.ap-central.com
