President Bola Tinubu carried out a complete change of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) board by dismissing both the Group Chief Executive Officer Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari and the board chairman Chief Pius Akinyelure.
President Tinubu terminated the board positions that Akinyelure and Kyari received in November 2023.
The presidential statement released at dawn on Wednesday revealed this information according to Bayo Onanuga of the presidential spokesperson office.
The new board consists of Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman as per the statement.
In addition to his appointment to the board, President Tinubu selected Adedapo Segun who took over the CFO position from Umaru Isa Ajiya during November 2022.
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The board consists of six non-executive directors responsible for representing the six geopolitical areas of Nigeria. Babs Omotowa from North Central represents the province on the board together with Bello Rabiu from the North West and Yusuf Usman from the North East.
The board leadership of NNPC GMD/CEO Prof. Femi Ojediran welcomed three government-approved non-executive directors named Austin Avuru from the South-South and David Ige from the South-West and Henry Obih from the South-East.
The Federal Ministry of Finance will be represented by Mrs Lydia Shehu Jafiya in the new board and Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
The next component of the announcement declared “All the appointments become effective as of today, April 2.
Through Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 President Tinubu established that the board restructuring will boost operational effectiveness while attracting investors and developing homegrown industries and propagating economic expansion and promoting gas commercialization plans.
Following his appointment President Tinubu provided the inaugural board members with a quick task demanding they review all oil assets for strategic alignment with value creation goals.
The Tinubu government started introducing oil sector transformations since it took power in 2023 with the goal of attracting investment. The company announced $17 billion in fresh investments to the sector for the previous year. Since 2027 the administration plans to raise investment spending to $30 billion while targeting $60 billion as the 2030 figure.
The Tinubu administration aims to increase oil production to two million barrels daily throughout 2027 and three million barrels by 2030. Gas production targets by the government extend to reaching 8 billion cubic feet per day by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet per day by 2030.
Through his expectations President Tinubu expects NNPC to achieve 200,000 crude oil refining barrels by 2027 and 500,000 barrels by 2030.
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Newton Enterprise Limited created Ahmadu Musa Kida from Borno State as the new NNPC board chairman. Kida received his civil engineering degree from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in 1984. Kida completed postgraduate studies in petroleum engineering at the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris after obtaining his civil engineering degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
In 1985 Kida began his professional career when he joined Total Exploration and Production following his work at Elf Petroleum Nigeria.
“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.
“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 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 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 Ltd in 1991 as an associate production technologist.
“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. In 2015, he became the managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).
“During his career, he was chairman and a member of the board of trustees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
“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 product production after prolonged shutdowns. He wished them well in their future endeavours.”
