In a major shake-up of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), President Bola Tinubu has removed Group Chief Executive Officer Mele Kolo Kyari and board chairman Chief Pius Akinyelure.
The reorganization also led to the dismissal of all board members appointed in November 2023.
This development was disclosed in a statement issued early Wednesday by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga.
According to the statement, President Tinubu has appointed Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the new Group Chief Executive Officer, while Ahmadu Musa Kida takes over as the non-executive chairman.
The statement further confirmed that Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as Chief Financial Officer last November, will remain on the newly formed board.
Representing the geopolitical zones as non-executive directors 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. Others include Austin Avuru (South-South), David Ige (South-West), and Henry Obih (South-East).
Additionally, the Federal Ministry of Finance will be represented by its Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
The restructuring, which takes immediate effect, was carried out under the powers granted by Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021.
The move is aimed at improving operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, strengthening local content participation, driving economic growth, and promoting gas commercialization and diversification.
The president also tasked the new board with conducting a strategic assessment of NNPCL’s asset portfolio to ensure alignment with the government’s value-maximization objectives.
Since 2023, the Tinubu administration has initiated reforms in the oil sector to attract investment, with NNPCL securing $17 billion in new investments last year.
The government aims to increase this figure to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
Additionally, plans are in place to boost crude oil production to two million barrels per day by 2027 and three million barrels per day by 2030. Gas production is also projected to rise to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030.
To further strengthen Nigeria’s energy sector, the government has set targets to increase NNPCL’s share of crude oil refining to 200,000 barrels per day by 2027 and 500,000 barrels per day by 2030.
Ahmadu Musa Kida, the new board chairman, hails from Borno State and holds a degree in civil engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, along with a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris.
His career in the oil industry began at Elf Petroleum Nigeria before he moved to Total Exploration and Production, where he rose to the position of Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015.
In 2023, he was appointed an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group.
Beyond his professional career, Kida is also a former basketball player and previously served as the president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF).
Ojulari, the newly appointed Group Chief Executive Officer, is from Kwara State and previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company.
He played a key role in leading a consortium of indigenous energy firms in the $2.4 billion acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria.