In a sweeping shake-up of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reconstituted the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, appointed new leadership to drive efficiency, investment, and energy reforms.
The President removed Chief Pius Akinyelure as board chairman and Mallam Mele Kyari as Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), along with all other board members appointed in November 2023. The announcement is contained in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy,
The newly appointed 11-member board is now led by Ahmadu Musa Kida as the non-executive Chairman, while Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari took over as the new Group CEO. Adedapo Segun, who was appointed Chief Financial Officer in November 2023, retained his role on the board.
Representing the country’s six geopolitical zones, the newly appointed non-executive directors are Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), Babs Omotowa (North Central), Austin Avuru (South-South), David Ige (South West), and Henry Obih (South East).
Additionally, Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, and Aminu Said Ahmed, representing the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, have been appointed as board members.
The reconstitution, which take immediate effect, was made under Section 59, Subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
President Tinubu emphasized that the board’s restructuring is aimed at enhancing operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, boosting local content participation, and accelerating gas commercialisation and diversification.
The new board has been tasked with conducting a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture (JV) assets to ensure maximum value and increased productivity.
Since 2023, the Tinubu administration has attracted $17 billion in new investments into Nigeria’s oil sector. The government now aims to increase this to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
Additionally, the administration is targeting an increase in crude oil production to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027 and 3 million bpd by 2030. Similarly, gas production is expected to rise to 8 billion cubic feet per day by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet per day by 2030.
Tinubu also directed the new board to expand NNPC’s refining capacity, setting a target to refine 200,000 barrels per day by 2027 and 500,000 barrels per day by 2030.
Ahmadu Musa Kida, the new board chairman, is a civil engineer from Borno State and a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He began his career at Elf Petroleum Nigeria before moving to Total Nigeria, where he rose to the position of Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015. Beyond the oil industry, Kida is a former professional basketball player and the immediate past President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF).
Bashir Bayo Ojulari, the new NNPC Group CEO, is an oil and gas expert from Kwara State and was previously the Executive Vice President of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. He led the $2.4 billion acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC). An alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Ojulari has worked with Elf Aquitaine, Shell Petroleum Development Company, and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO). He has extensive experience in petroleum engineering, field development, and asset management, with assignments across Nigeria, Europe, and the Middle East.
President Tinubu commended the outgoing board members for their dedication, particularly their contributions to rehabilitating the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which resumed petroleum product production after years of inactivity.
The President wished them well in their future endeavors, emphasizing that the new board’s mandate is to position NNPC as a globally competitive and investor-friendly energy company.
