President Bola Tinubu has restructured the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited board, removing the chairman, Pius Akinyelure, and the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari.
Bashir Ojulari has been appointed as the new Group CEO, effective April 2, 2025.
The development was disclosed by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement issued early Wednesday, titled “President Tinubu reconstitutes NNPC Limited board, appoints new Chairman, Group CEO.”
“President Tinubu removed all other board members appointed with Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023. The new 11-man board has Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman,” the statement reads.
Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, has been appointed to the new board.
Six non-executive directors will represent Nigeria’s geopolitical zones. They are Bello Rabiu for the North West, Yusuf Usman for the North East, and Babs Omotowa, former managing director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, for North Central.
“President Tinubu also 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 Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources,” Onanuga stated.
The appointments take effect on April 2.
Invoking powers granted under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, President Tinubu emphasized that the restructuring is crucial for improving operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, boosting local content, driving economic growth, and advancing gas commercialization and diversification.
He also outlined an immediate action plan for the new board “to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives.”
The Tinubu administration has been pursuing oil sector reforms since 2023. In 2024, NNPC reported $17 billion in new investments within the sector.
“The administration now envisions increasing the investment to $30bn by 2027 and $60bn 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,” Onanuga explained.
President Tinubu also 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 Kida, is from Borno State. He graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria in 1984 and later earned a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol in Paris.
He began his career in the oil industry at Elf Petroleum Nigeria and later 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.
In 2024, Kida became an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group. Apart from his oil industry career, Kida is a former basketball player and has served as the President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation.
The new NNPC Limited Group CEO, Bashir Ojulari, is from Kwara State. Prior to his appointment, Ojulari was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company, which led a consortium of indigenous energy firms in acquiring the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria for $2.4 billion.
Ojulari holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and began his oil career with Elf Aquitaine as the first Nigerian process engineer. He joined Shell Petroleum Development Company in 1991 and later worked in Europe and the Middle East in various roles, including managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company.
During his career, Ojulari served as chairman and board member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
“President Tinubu thanked the old board members for their dedicated service to NNPC Limited, particularly their efforts in rehabilitating the old Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which enabled them to resume petroleum product production after prolonged shutdowns. He wished them well in their future endeavours,” the statement stated.
