BREAKING! Tinubu Sacks NNPC Limited Boss, Kyari, Reshuffles Board

President Bola Tinubu has reconstituted the NNPC Limited board, sacking GCEO Mele Kyari and Chairman Pius Akinyelure in a sweeping overhaul aimed at boosting efficiency.

This was disclosed in a statement issued early Wednesday by the presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga. According to the statement, the new 11-member NNPC Limited board is to be led by Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the new Group CEO, while Ahmadu Musa Kida takes over as the non-executive chairman.

Also appointed to the new board is Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as the Chief Financial Officer last November. Segun has now been confirmed as a board member by President Tinubu. The newly constituted board includes six non-executive directors representing the six geopolitical zones. Bello Rabiu represents the North West, Yusuf Usman represents the North East, while Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), represents the North Central.

In a major shake-up of Nigeria’s oil sector, President Bola Tinubu has dismissed the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari, along with the board chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure. The president also removed all other board members who were appointed alongside Kyari and Akinyelure in November 2023.

In the southern regions, President Tinubu appointed Austin Avuru from the South-South, David Ige from the South-West, and Henry Obih from the South-East as non-executive directors. Additionally, Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will serve as the ministry’s representative on the new board, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

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The statement emphasized that all appointments take effect immediately, starting from April 2. President Tinubu made the changes by invoking the powers granted under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021. The president stated that the board’s restructuring was necessary to enhance operational efficiency, restore investor confidence, boost local content, drive economic growth, and advance gas commercialization and diversification.

Furthermore, the new NNPC Limited board has been tasked with conducting a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and joint venture assets to ensure alignment with the government’s value maximization objectives. Since 2023, the Tinubu administration has implemented reforms in the oil sector aimed at attracting investment. The administration reported securing $17 billion in new oil sector investments last year and now targets raising that figure to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.

NNPC Limited

The president’s broader agenda includes ramping up Nigeria’s daily crude oil production to two million barrels by 2027 and three million barrels by 2030. Simultaneously, gas production is expected to rise to eight billion cubic feet per day by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet per day by 2030. Additionally, President Tinubu has charged the new board with increasing NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels per day by 2027 and achieving 500,000 barrels per day by 2030.

Ahmadu Musa Kida, the newly appointed NNPC Limited board chairman, hails from Borno State. He is a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he earned a degree in civil engineering in 1984. Kida also holds 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, after which he joined Total Exploration and Production as a trainee engineer in 1985. In 2015, he became Total Nigeria’s Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services. Before his latest appointment, Kida was an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group. He is also known for his contributions to Nigerian basketball, having served as the president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF).

Bashir Bayo Ojulari, the new NNPC Limited Group CEO, is from Kwara State. Before his appointment, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His leadership at Renaissance played a key role in the recent landmark $2.4 billion acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) by a consortium of indigenous energy firms. Ojulari is also an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering. He began his career at Elf Aquitaine as the first Nigerian process engineer before moving to Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd in 1991 as an associate production technologist.

Over the years, Ojulari the new NNPC Limited Boss has worked across Europe and the Middle East in various capacities, including as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager. In 2015, he was appointed managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO). He has also served as the chairman and a board trustee of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.

President Tinubu expressed gratitude to the outgoing board members for their service to NNPC Limited, particularly for their contributions to the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which resumed petroleum product production after prolonged shutdowns. He wished them success in their future endeavors.