President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sanctioned a major restructuring of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, dismissing the chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure, as well as the group chief executive officer, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari.
All other board members appointed alongside Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023 have also been removed by President Tinubu.
Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari has been designated as the Group CEO for the newly formed 11-member board, with Ahmadu Musa Kida serving as the non-executive chairman.
Adedapo Segun, who took over from Umaru Isa Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, has also been included in the new board by President Tinubu.
Six non-executive directors will represent the country’s geopolitical zones: Bello Rabiu for North West, Yusuf Usman for North East, and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), for North Central.
From the South-South, President Tinubu has chosen Austin Avuru as a non-executive director, while David Ige takes on the role from the South West and Henry Obih from the South East.
The new board will also have Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, representing that ministry, and Aminu Said Ahmed representing the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
All appointments will take effect from today, April 2.
President Tinubu has emphasized that this restructuring of the board, under the authority assigned by Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, is vital for improving operational efficiency, restoring investor trust, enhancing local content, stimulating economic growth, and promoting gas commercialisation and diversification.
Furthermore, President Tinubu has provided an immediate action plan for the new board, which includes conducting a strategic review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure they are aligned with goals for maximizing value.
Since 2023, the Tinubu administration has initiated reforms in the oil sector to draw in investments. In the previous year, NNPC reported $17 billion in fresh investments in the sector. The administration aims to elevate that investment level to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
The Tinubu government plans to boost oil production to two million barrels per day by 2027 and reach three million per day by 2030. Additionally, they hope to increase gas production to 8 billion cubic feet per day by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030.
Moreover, President Tinubu expects the new board to increase NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and to reach 500,000 barrels by 2030.
Ahmadu Musa Kida, the newly appointed chairman of the board, hails from Borno State and graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1984 from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He also earned a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris.
He began his career in the oil sector at Elf Petroleum Nigeria and subsequently joined Total Exploration and Production as a trainee engineer in 1985.
Musa advanced to become Total Nigeria’s Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015, and last year, he was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group.
In addition to his career in the oil industry, Ahmadu Musa Kida is formerly a basketball player and currently serves as the president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) board.
Ojulari, who has been named the new Group CEO of NNPC Limited, is from Kwara State. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company, which recently led a consortium of indigenous energy firms in the significant acquisition of the entire equity interest in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) for $2.4 billion.
Ojulari, like Kida, is a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where he earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He began his impressive career in the oil industry as the first Nigerian process engineer at Elf Aquitaine. Following his time at Elf, he joined Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd in 1991, taking on the role of associate production technologist.
In addition to his work in Nigeria, he held various positions as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager across Europe and the Middle East. In 2015, he was appointed as the managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).
Throughout his professional journey, he served as chairman and a board member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and achieved fellow status with the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
President Tinubu expressed gratitude to the former board members for their committed service to NNPC Limited, especially for their work in restoring the old Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which allowed them to restart the production of petroleum products after extended shutdown periods. He extended his best wishes for their future endeavors.
