President Bola Tinubu has overhauled the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, dismissing Chairman Chief Pius Akinyelure and Group Chief Executive Officer Mallam Mele Kyari, along with the entire board appointed in November 2023. The announcement came via a statement from Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, released early Wednesday.
Tinubu has appointed Engineer Bashir Ojulari as the new Group CEO and Ahmadu Kida as Non-Executive Chairman, heading a freshly constituted 11-member board. Adedapo Segun, who succeeded Umaru Ajiya as Chief Financial Officer last November, retains a seat on the new board. Representing Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones are non-executive directors Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), Babs Omotowa (North Central, formerly of NLNG), Austin Avuru (South-South), David Ige (South-West), and Henry Obih (South East). Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, and Aminu Ahmed, representing the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, complete the lineup. All appointments take effect April 2.
Citing Section 59(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, Tinubu underscored that the restructuring aims to boost operational efficiency, rebuild investor trust, enhance local content, spur economic growth, and advance gas commercialization and diversification. He tasked the new board with an immediate strategic review of NNPC’s operated and joint venture assets to align with value-maximization goals.
Since taking office in 2023, Tinubu’s administration has pursued oil sector reforms to draw investment, yielding $17 billion in new commitments last year. The government now targets $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030. Ambitious production goals include raising oil output to 2 million barrels per day by 2027 and 3 million by 2030, alongside increasing gas production to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion by 2030. Tinubu also expects the board to elevate NNPC’s crude oil refining capacity to 200,000 barrels daily by 2027 and 500,000 by 2030.
New Chairman Ahmadu Kida, from Borno State, graduated with a civil engineering degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1984 and earned a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from Institut Francaise du Petrol in Paris. His career began at Elf Petroleum Nigeria, followed by a stint at Total Exploration and Production in 1985, where he rose to Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services by 2015. In 2023, he joined Pan Ocean-Newcross Group as an Independent Non-Executive Director. Beyond oil, Kida, a former basketballer, leads the Nigerian Basketball Federation.
Bashir Ojulari, the incoming Group CEO from Kwara State, was until recently Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His firm spearheaded a $2.4 billion acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria’s equity—a landmark deal for indigenous energy firms. An Ahmadu Bello University mechanical engineering graduate, Ojulari started at Elf Aquitaine as its first Nigerian process engineer before joining Shell in 1991. His career spanned Nigeria, Europe, and the Middle East, culminating in his role as Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) in 2015. He is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and has served on the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Nigerian Council.
Tinubu expressed gratitude to the outgoing board for their service, particularly for reviving the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which resumed production after years of inactivity. He wished them success in their future pursuits.
