NNPCL: Tinubu removes Board Chair Akinyelure, Group CEO Kyari, reconstitutes Board

*President Bola Ahmed Tinubu emphasises the restructuring of the Board of NNPC Limited is crucial to enhance operational efficiency, restore investor confidence, boost local content, drive economic growth, and advance gas commercialisation and diversification of the state oil company

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a sweeping reconstitution of the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, removing Chief Pius Akinyelure, Board Chairman, and Malam Mele Kolo Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

President Tinubu also removed all other Board members appointed along with Akinyelure and Kyari since November 2023.

Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, who disclosed this development Wednesday, April 2, 2025, said the new 11-man Board has Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the new Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as Non-Executive Chairman.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

The Nigerian leader appointed Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as the Chief Financial Officer November 2024, to the new Board.

The statement also noted the six Board members, Non-Executive Directors, represent the country’s six geopolitical zones.

These are Bello Rabiu, North-West, Yusuf Usman, North-East, and Babs Omotowa, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), who represents North-Central.

President Tinubu as well appointed Austin Avuru as a Non-Executive Director from the South-South, David Ige as a Non-Executive Director from the South-West, and Henry Obih as a Non-Executive Director from the South-East.

Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry on the new board, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

All the appointments are effective from Wednesday, April 2, Onanuga stated.

Invoking the powers granted under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, the President emphasised that the Board’s restructuring is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, boosting local content, driving economic growth, and advancing gas commercialisation and diversification.

He equally handed out an immediate action plan to the new Board: to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives.

The statement further noted since 2023, the Tinubu administration has implemented oil sector reforms to attract investment.

The NNPC, in 2024, reported $17 billion in new investments within the sector.

The administration now envisions increasing the investment to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.

The Tinubu administration targets raising oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million daily by 2030. Concurrently, the government wants gas production jacked to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030.

Furthermore, President Tinubu expects the new Board to elevate NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and reach 500,000 by 2030.

The new Board Chairman, Ahmadu Musa Kida, is from Borno State.

Kida is an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, in Kaduba State, where he received a Degree in Civil Engineering in 1984.

He also obtained a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris

The Board Chairman started his career in the oil industry at Elf Petroleum Nigeria and later joined Total Exploration and Production as a trainee engineer in 1985.

Musa became Total Nigeria’s Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015.

Last year, he became an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group.

Apart from his oil industry career, Ahmadu Musa Kida is a former basketballer and the President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation(NBBF) board.

Ojulari, the new NNPC Limited Group CEO, hails from Kwara State.

Until his new appointment, he was Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Renaissance Africa Energy Company.

His Renaissance recently led a consortium of indigenous energy firms in the landmark acquisition of the entire equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), worth $2.4 billion.

Like Kida, Ojulari is also an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Ojulari graduated with a Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

He worked for Elf Aquitaine as the first Nigerian process engineer to begin a stellar career in the oil sector.

From Elf, he joined Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, in 1991, as an associate production technologist.

Apart from working in Nigeria, the new Group CEO had worked in Europe and the Middle East in different capacities as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager.

In 2015, he became the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).

During his career, he was Chairman and member of the Board of Trustees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council), and Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).

President Tinubu thanked the outgoing Board members for their dedicated service to NNPC Limited, particularly their efforts at rehabilitating the old Port Harcourt and Warri Oil Refineries, which enabled the facilities to resume production of petroleum products after prolonged shutdowns.

He wished them well in their future endeavours, the statement added.

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