SONARA Gets New General Manager

Ibrahim Talba Malla was nominated and commissioned last Friday 15 February following the 91st Board session of the Refinery.

The Limbe-based National Oil Refinery Corporation (known by its French acronym SONARA), now has a new General Manager to pilot the affairs of the state-owned refinery. Ibrahim Talba Malla, was nominated by the Board of Directors of SONARA under the chairmanship of John Ebong Ngole, following high instructions from the Head of State, President Paul Biya.

Ibrahim Talba Malla, formerly General Manager of the National Hydrocarbons Price Stabilization Fund and the Administrator of SONARA and the National Hydrocarbons Corporation before his nomination Friday 15 February 2013 by the Board of Directors of SONARA, according to the Minister of Water and Energy, makes him no stranger in the petroleum sector which the Minister said he has mastered so well.

Installing the new GM, the Minister of Water and Energy, Basile Atangana Kouna , urged him to adopt measures that would straighten and modernize the Corporation. The Corporation, he said, has faced some challenges within the last four years due to exigencies posed by competition, improvement in productivity and the protection of the environment which requires necessary measures for modernization.

To the erstwhile General Manager, Charles Metouck, Minister Basile Atangane Kouna, on behalf of the government saluted the efforts deployed to ensure the smooth functioning of the Corporation and make available quality petroleum products to the national market.

Created in 1981 as a public entity with 82 percent of the shares belonging to government, the National Oil Refinery today produces more that 2 million barrels of oil annually. Ibrahim Talba Malla, holder of a post graduate diploma in Business law from the University of Yaounde in 1981 and a Diploma from ENAM with specialty in Taxation in 1982, has occupied several posts of responsibility in public administration and para-public establishments. His wealth of experience, managerial expertise and competence, the Minister said, earned him the confidence of the Head of State to be nominated at the helm of SONARA.