President Bola Tinubu has sacked the Group Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Limited, Mele Kolo Kyari in sweeping reconstitution of company’s board, that also affected its chairman, Pius Akinyelure.
The President also removed all other board members appointed with Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023.
The new 11-member board has Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman.
Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, has been appointed to the new board by President Tinubu.
Six new non-executive board directors, representing the country’s geopolitical zones are Bello Rabiu from North-West, Yusuf Usman from North-East, and former managing director of Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas, NLNG, Babs Omotowa from North-Central. Others are Austin Avuru from South-South, David Ige from South-West, and Henry Obih from the South-East.
The permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Lydia Shehu Jafiya will represent the ministry on the new board, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
A statement by Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, Bayo Onanuga says, 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 handed out an immediate action plan to the new board 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 implemented oil sector reforms to attract investments. 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.
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 the 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.
Apart from his oil industry career, Ahmadu Musa Kida is a former basketballer and President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation, NBBF.
Ojulari who is 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 Renaissance 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, SPDC, worth $2.4 billion.
Like Kida, Ojulari is also an alumnus of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked for Elf Aquitaine as the first Nigerian process engineer to begin a stellar career in the oil sector. From Elf, he joined Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited in 1991 as an associate production technologist.
President Tinubu thanked the old 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 production after prolonged shutdowns. He wished them well in their future endeavours.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
