President Bola Tinubu has approved a major overhaul of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, board, replacing the chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure, and the Group Chief Executive Officer, GCEO, Mele Kyari.
The president’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced the changes in a statement on Tuesday, noting that all board members appointed alongside Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023 had also been removed.
Under the new 11-member board, Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari has been appointed as the new GCEO, while Ahmadu Musa Kida will serve as the non-executive chairman. Additionally, Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, has now been formally appointed to the board.
The reconstituted board includes six non-executive directors representing Nigeria’s geopolitical zones: Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), and Babs Omotowa (North Central). Representing the South-South, South-West, and South-East are Austin Avuru, David Ige, and Henry Obih, respectively.
Also joining the board are Lydia Shehu Jafiya, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, and Aminu Said Ahmed, representing the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
The appointments, effective April 2, 2025, were made under Section 59, Subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021. President Tinubu emphasized that the restructuring aims to enhance operational efficiency, attract investment, and drive economic growth through improved local content, gas commercialization, and diversification.
The new board has been tasked with conducting a strategic review of NNPCL’s assets and joint ventures to maximize value. This move aligns with Tinubu’s broader oil sector reforms, which have attracted $17 billion in investments since 2023. The administration now aims to increase investments to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
Additionally, the government has set ambitious production targets: increasing crude oil output to two million barrels per day by 2027 and three million by 2030, while boosting gas production to eight billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030. NNPCL’s share of crude refining output is expected to reach 200,000 barrels per day by 2027 and 500,000 by 2030.
New board chairman Ahmadu Musa Kida, from Borno State, is a civil engineering graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He holds a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Français du Pétrole, IFP, Paris.
Kida previously served as Total Nigeria’s Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services and was an independent non-executive director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group. Beyond his oil sector experience, he is a former basketball player and past president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation, NBBF.
GCEO Bashir Bayo Ojulari, from Kwara State, was previously Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His firm led the landmark $2.4 billion acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria , SPDC.
An alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, he began his career at Elf Aquitaine before moving to Shell in 1991. Ojulari has worked across Europe and the Middle East, holding roles in petroleum processing, strategic planning, and asset management. In 2015, he became Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPCO.
President Tinubu expressed appreciation to the outgoing board members for their contributions, particularly their efforts in rehabilitating the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which have resumed petroleum product production after years of inactivity. He wished them success in their future endeavours.
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