President Bola Tinubu has dissolved the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) including the chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure and the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari.
This was announced by the president’s spokesman Bayo Onanuga on Wednesday. According to him, the new development takes immediate effect.
President Tinubu cited the need for enhanced operational efficiency, restored investor confidence, and a more commercially viable NNPC as the driving forces behind the decision.
Invoking his powers under Section 59(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, he reconstituted the board with new leadership aimed at repositioning NNPC Limited for greater productivity and alignment with global best practices.
Kyari was first appointed NNPC chief by former President Muhammadu Buhari but was reappointed in 2023 by President Tinubu.
As part of the overhaul, Bayo Ojulari takes over from Kyari as the new group CEO, while Ahmadu Musa Kida has been appointed as NNPC’s new non-executive chairman, replacing Pius Akinyelure. Also, Adedapo Segun has been confirmed as the company’s chief financial officer (CFO).
In line with the PIA, the president also appointed six non-executive directors from each geopolitical zone.
They include Bello Rabiu representing the north-west, Yusuf Usman from the north-east, and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), for the north-central.
Others are Austin Avuru for the south-south, David Ige for the south-west, and Henry Obih for the south-east.
Meanwhile, Lydia Shehu Jafiya, the permanent secretary of the federal ministry of finance, and Aminu Said Ahmed of the ministry of petroleum resources will represent their respective ministries on the new board.
“This restructuring is aimed at repositioning NNPC Limited for greater productivity and efficiency in line with global best practices. We are taking bold steps to transform the company into a more commercially driven and transparent entity,” the statement reads.
The changes take effect immediately, and the new board has been handed a strategic action plan, which includes a “review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives”.
Since 2023, the Tinubu administration has implemented oil sector reforms to attract investment. Last year, NNPC reported $17 billion in new investments within the sector. The administration now envisions increasing the investment to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
The Tinubu administration targets raising oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million daily by 2030. Concurrently, the government wants gas production jacked to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 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 by 2027 and reach 500,000 by 2030
The new board chairman, Ahmadu Musa Kida, is from Borno State. He is an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he received a degree in civil engineering in 1984. He also obtained a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris
He started 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 became an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group.
Apart from his oil industry career, Ahmadu Musa Kida is a former basketballer and the president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation(NBBF) board.
Below is the profile of the new NNPCL boss.
Ojulari, an indigene of Kwara State, is a seasoned Nigerian engineer with expertise in petroleum, process, and production engineering.
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 firms in the landmark acquisition of the entire equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, worth $2.4bn.
Ojulari is also an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, having graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
He began his career as the first Nigerian process engineer at Elf Aquitaine before joining Shell Petroleum Development Company in 1991 as an associate production technologist.
A fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigeria Council) from 1998 to 1999.
Throughout his career, he has held managerial roles in Europe and the Middle East, specialising in petroleum engineering, process engineering, production engineering, and health and safety.
In November 2015, Ojulari was appointed Managing Director of SNEPCo and General Manager, Deepwater.
He also served on the board of Shell Petroleum Development Company, overseeing onshore and offshore petroleum engineering, technical integration of development, well engineering, and project engineering.
Apart from working in Nigeria, he worked in Europe and the Middle East in different capacities as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager.
