State House Press Release on the New NNPC Appointing A New CEO

 

President Tinubu reconstitutes the NNPC Limited Board and names a new chairman and group chief executive officer. 

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited board has been completely reconfigured with the removal of the chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure, and the group chief executive officer, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In November 2023, President Tinubu removed all other board members appointed alongside Akinyelure and Kyari. 

Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari serves as Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida serves as non-executive chairman on the new 11-member board. President Tinubu has appointed Adedapo Segun to the new board. 

In November, Segun succeeded Umaru Isa Ajiya as chief financial officer. Six non executive directors from the country's geopolitical zones serve on the board. They are Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), and Babs Omotowa (North Central), a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG).

 Austin Avuru, David Ige, and Henry Obih were selected by President Tinubu as non executive directors from the South-South, South-West, and South-East regions, respectively. Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, and Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will serve as the ministry's representative on the new board. Today, April 2, all appointments take effect. 

Invoking the authority granted by Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021, President Tinubu emphasized the significance of the board's restructuring for improving operational efficiency, regaining investor confidence, increasing local content, propelling economic expansion, and advancing gas commercialization and diversification. In addition, President Tinubu gave the new board an immediate plan of action: to carry out a strategic portfolio review of Joint Venture Assets and NNPC-operated Assets to make sure they are in line with the goals of maximising value.

 To encourage investment, the Tinubu administration has implemented reforms to the oil sector since 2023. The NNPC reported new investments worth $17 billion in the sector that year. By 2027, the administration plans to invest $30 billion and $60 billion, respectively.

 By 2030, the Tinubu administration intends to increase oil production to three million barrels per day and two million barrels per day, respectively. In parallel, the government intends to increase gas production to 10 billion cubic feet per day by 2030 and 8 billion cubic feet per day by 2027. In addition, President Tinubu anticipates that the new board will increase NNPC's share of crude oil refining output to 500,000 barrels by 2030 and 200,000 barrels by 2027, respectively. Ahmadu Musa Kida, the new chairman of the board, is from Borno State. 

He graduated from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria in 1984 with a degree in civil engineering. Additionally, he graduated from the Institut Français du Petrol (IFP) in Paris with a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering. 

He began his oil industry career at Elf Petroleum Nigeria before joining Total Exploration and Production in 1985 as a trainee engineer. In 2015, Musa was appointed the Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services for Total Nigeria. He joined Pan Ocean-Newcross Group as an Independent Non-Executive Director last year. 

Ahmadu Musa Kida is a former basketball player and the president of the board of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF), in addition to his work in the oil industry. The new CEO of NNPC Limited Group, Ojulari, is from Kwara State. He was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company prior to his new position.

 His Renaissance recently led a group of local energy companies in a historic $2.4 billion acquisition of the entire equity stake in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC). Ojulari is also a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, like Kida. 

He received his degree in Mechanical Engineering upon graduation. He was the first Nigerian process engineer to start a successful career in the oil industry and worked for Elf Aquitaine. 

He started as an associate production technologist at Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. in 1991 after leaving Elf. He worked as a strategic planner, field developer, asset manager, and petroleum process and production engineer in Europe and the Middle East in addition to his work in Nigeria. 

He joined Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) as its managing director in 2015. He was a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and served as chairman and member of the board of trustees for the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council). President Tinubu expressed his gratitude to the previous board members for their devoted service to NNPC Limited, particularly for their efforts in restoring the aging Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which allowed the company to resume production of petroleum products after lengthy shutdowns. He wished them success in their endeavors to come.