For most businesses, that gap never shows up anywhere. With nothing to check the logbook against, the missing fuel is simply recorded as fuel burned. For Muhammad Lawan Zanna, it revealed a problem that could be solved with better information — and the beginnings of a business built around making fuel, fleets and critical assets more visible.
Today, Oryo Limited has 16 years in the business and a presence in six African markets: Nigeria, Angola, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda. The company is fully operational in Nigeria and Angola. Headquartered in Lagos, Oryo provides technology and remote-monitoring solutions that help organisations track fuel, manage fleets and monitor the performance of critical assets across energy, logistics and industrial operations.
“Fuel is one of the biggest variable costs for most operators on this continent, and for years nobody could actually see it,” says Zanna, President and Chief Executive of Oryo. “We built Oryo to close the gap between the fuel businesses pay for and the fuel they can account for.”
Nigeria’s economy relies heavily on diesel and petrol. Telecoms infrastructure, factories, hospitals, banks and residential estates depend on generators; trucks move goods across the country; and vessels support activity in the offshore energy sector. Across these environments, fuel losses can arise from pilferage, unauthorised draining, excessive idling, inefficient driving and inaccurate consumption reporting.
As fuel costs have risen, the financial consequences of poor visibility have become harder for operators to ignore. A business that cannot accurately reconcile fuel delivered, fuel consumed and fuel remaining is exposed to avoidable costs, operational inefficiency and weak accountability.
Oryo addresses that challenge with an integrated monitoring platform that brings together sensors, telematics hardware, software and remote monitoring. Clients gain a continuous view of how their assets are performing, how fuel is being used and where operational discrepancies require attention.
A connected platform across five business verticals
Oryo’s offering spans five core verticals: fleet management, fuel management, energy asset management, marine solutions and power solutions. Together, these capabilities support a broad range of assets and operating environments, from trucks and fuel tanks to generators and marine equipment.
The platform’s capabilities extend across the operating life of a fleet. Fuel-level and flow sensors can identify suspicious changes in tank levels and help detect possible siphoning. Geo-fencing alerts managers when vehicles move outside approved routes. Driver-behaviour analytics can flag harsh braking, speeding and excessive idling, while engine data gives fleet managers visibility into vehicle performance and helps them identify maintenance issues before they become more disruptive.
By bringing fuel consumption, vehicle location, driver behaviour and engine condition into one monitoring environment, Oryo gives businesses a more complete basis for operational decisions. Managers can investigate discrepancies, respond to exceptions and assess performance with data drawn from the assets themselves.
Its energy asset and power-monitoring capabilities extend that visibility to generators and other critical equipment. In the marine sector, fuel monitoring helps operators account for consumption across vessels and offshore activity. These are environments where downtime, fuel waste and limited oversight can carry significant financial consequences.
Oryo’s proposition has been developed through years of field experience. The company has deployed its hardware and software for multinational oil and gas distributors, fleet operators, manufacturers and energy asset managers. Its work has been shaped by the practical demands of installations, connectivity, monitoring and support across complex operating environments.
The outcomes reported by clients provide a tangible measure of that experience. In its first year with Oryo, one major multinational client reduced fuel costs by 15 percent. A leading logistics company reduced fuel consumption by 10 percent and delivery times by 15 percent. A manufacturing client reported a 12 percent reduction in transportation costs, while an oil and
gas operator recorded a 20 percent reduction in operational costs alongside stronger safety protocols.
These results show the value of connecting visibility to operational action. Identifying a fuel discrepancy is the starting point; the gains come when managers can investigate it, intervene, improve processes and measure the effect. Oryo’s work therefore supports both the collection of operational data and the decisions that help clients improve performance.
The company supports its deployments with a Network Operations Centre in Lagos that monitors client assets around the clock. It continues to invest in the procurement and engineering capacity required for sensors, telematics modules and connectivity hardware. This combination of field deployment, monitoring infrastructure and technical capability gives clients an ongoing monitoring and management service.
“Our clients don’t buy devices. They buy certainty,” Zanna says. “When a CFO can look at a dashboard and know exactly what every generator burned last night, that enhances efficiency.”
The founder behind the systems
Zanna’s route into the business began in the energy sector. He is from Maiduguri, Borno State, and spent part of his early schooling at St. Peter and Paul Prep School in Kingston, Jamaica. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Chemistry at the American University of Nigeria in Yola, including a year of study abroad in chemistry at American University in Washington, D.C.
His first professional role was as a Project Manager at AMG Petroenergy. Working around depots, tankers, generators and the processes intended to reconcile fuel movement, he saw how much operational decision-making depended on information that could be incomplete or difficult to verify.
“Everyone had a number on paper. Nobody had a number they could trust,” he recalls. “I realised the problem wasn’t oil. It was data.”
That insight became the foundation for Oryo. Over 16 years, the company has developed expertise at the intersection of energy operations and technology, building a practical understanding of the assets, environments and business processes it monitors. Its experience is significant in a sector where technology must work reliably in demanding real-world conditions and where trust is earned through sustained performance.
A growing footprint across Africa
Oryo’s growth now extends beyond its Nigerian base. The company has a presence in Nigeria, Angola, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda, and is fully operational in Nigeria and Angola. The six-market footprint reflects the reach of its continental ambitions, while its two fully operational markets provide the foundation for its current regional business.
Angola is a significant part of that growth. In the second quarter of 2026, Oryo launched operations and opened an office in the country. As one of sub-Saharan Africa’s major oil producers, Angola has an extensive network of depots, tanker fleets, offshore support vessels and generator-dependent businesses. These are precisely the kinds of operating environments in which reliable fuel and asset monitoring can make a measurable difference.
“Angola has the same problem we addressed in Nigeria: high fuel dependence, large fleets and very little visibility,” Zanna says. “The experience we have built over 16 years gives us a strong foundation to support operators in that market.”
In Angola, Oryo is focused on fleet and fuel management for logistics operators and government, alongside marine fuel monitoring for offshore vessels and power and generator monitoring. These services draw on capabilities the company has developed through years of work in Nigeria and is now applying to another major African energy market.
For Oryo, the move into Angola is an opportunity to take an established combination of technology, deployment experience and operational support into a new market. Its presence in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda further demonstrates the company’s broader reach across the continent.
The value of Oryo’s work also extends beyond cost control. Accurate fuel records can help organisations understand the emissions associated with their operations. Because fuel consumption can be translated into emissions using recognised factors and methodologies, reliable monitoring data can contribute to stronger emissions accounting and reporting.
For companies seeking to improve environmental reporting, establish a credible baseline or demonstrate the effect of efficiency measures, consistent operational data is an important starting point. Oryo’s monitoring infrastructure gives clients a more dependable record of fuel use across vehicles, generators and other assets. That data can form part of a wider measurement, reporting and verification process used in emissions accounting and carbon projects.
As African businesses face increasing expectations from investors, lenders, regulators and international partners to explain their operational performance and environmental impact, better data can strengthen internal controls and help organisations prepare for more rigorous reporting.
Building for the long term
In an ecosystem that often rewards the loudest voices, Oryo has built its reputation through deployments, technical capability and client outcomes. Zanna describes himself as a builder working at the meeting point of energy and technology.
“I’d rather show you a 15 percent fuel saving than a pitch deck,” he says. “In this sector, trust is earned site by site.”
The company’s established strengths — 16 years of industry experience, five business verticals, integrated hardware and software, round-the-clock monitoring infrastructure and a record of measurable client outcomes — give it a platform for further growth. Its next phase includes expanding its African reach, developing AI-driven predictive analytics and deepening its marine and power offerings.
For Zanna, the ambition is to build the infrastructure that allows African businesses to understand their operations with greater precision, manage resources more efficiently and make decisions based on evidence.
“Africa doesn’t need to import every solution to its own problems,” he says. “We built this for African operating conditions, and we’re taking that experience across the continent.”
Source: africa.businessinsider.com
