President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a sweeping reconstitution of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited board, removing the chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure, and the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari.
President Tinubu also dismissed all other board members appointed alongside Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023.
The newly constituted 11-member board has Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as Non-Executive Chairman.
Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as Chief Financial Officer last November, has now been appointed to the new board by President Tinubu.
Six board members, all non-executive directors, represent the country’s geopolitical zones. They are Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), and Babs Omotowa, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), representing North Central.
President Tinubu appointed Austin Avuru as a Non-Executive Director from the South-South, David Ige as a Non-Executive Director from the South-West, and Henry Obih as a Non-Executive Director from the South-East.
Mrs Lydia Shehu Jafiya, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry on the new board, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
All appointments take effect today, April 2.
Invoking the powers granted under Section 59, Subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, President Tinubu emphasised that the board’s restructuring is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, boosting local content, driving economic growth, and advancing gas commercialisation and diversification.
President Tinubu also outlined an immediate action plan for the new board, instructing it to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives.
Since 2023, the Tinubu administration has pursued oil sector reforms to attract investment. Last year, NNPC reported $17 billion in new investments within the sector. The administration now aims to increase investment to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
The administration targets raising oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million barrels daily by 2030. Concurrently, the government aims to increase gas production to eight billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and ten billion cubic feet by 2030.
Furthermore, President Tinubu expects the new board to elevate NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels daily by 2027 and 500,000 barrels daily by 2030.
The new board chairman, Ahmadu Musa Kida, hails from Borno State. He is an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he obtained a degree in Civil Engineering in 1984. He also earned a postgraduate diploma in Petroleum Engineering from the Institut Français du Pétrole (IFP) in Paris.
He began his career in the oil industry at Elf Petroleum Nigeria and later joined Total Exploration and Production as a trainee engineer in 1985.
Musa became Total Nigeria’s Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015. Last year, he was appointed an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group.
Beyond his oil industry career, Ahmadu Musa Kida is a former basketball player and the President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) board.
Ojulari, the new NNPC Limited Group CEO, hails from Kwara State. Until his new appointment, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His firm recently led a consortium of indigenous energy companies in the landmark $2.4 billion acquisition of the entire equity holding in Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC).
Like Kida, Ojulari is also an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was the first Nigerian process engineer to begin a stellar career in the oil sector at Elf Aquitaine. He later joined Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd in 1991 as an associate production technologist.
His career spans Nigeria, Europe, and the Middle East, where he served in various capacities as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager. In 2015, he was appointed Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).
Ojulari has also served as Chairman and Board of Trustees member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
President Tinubu expressed gratitude to the outgoing board members for their dedicated service to NNPC Limited, particularly their efforts in rehabilitating the old Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which enabled them to resume petroleum product production after prolonged shutdowns. He wished them success in their future endeavours.
