President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a sweeping change in the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited board, removing the chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure and the group chief executive officer, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari.
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.
Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, has been appointed to the new board by President Tinubu.
Six board members, non-executive directors, represent the country’s geopolitical zones. They are Bello Rabiu, North West, Yusuf Usman, North East, and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas( NLNG), who represents North Central.
President Tinubu 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 today, April 2.
President Tinubu, invoking the powers granted under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, 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.
President Tinubu also 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.
Since 2023, the Tinubu administration has implemented oil sector reforms to attract investment. Last year, NNPC 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. He is an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 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
He 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 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. He 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 Ltd in 1991 as an associate production technologist.
Apart from working in Nigeria, he 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 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.
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Exclusive
ECOWAS disengages staff from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger
….Ministers to approve exit contingency plans in April
From: Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja
Citizens of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger working in the institutions of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS are expected to exit by September 2025, The Nation learnt.
Besides, a contingency plan of engagement to draw the curtain on the exit of the three countries is expected to be endorsed at the April 2025 extra-ordinary session of ECOWAS Ministers.
The endorsement, The Nation gathered, will signal the kick off of negotiations on modalities for future engagement between ECOWAS and the Alliance of Sahel States, AES.
This follows the official exit of the three countries from the regional bloc.
The one year notice issued by the three countries who have now formed their own regional bloc came to effect in January 2025.
Though the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government granted them six months of grace should they decide to have a change of mind.
However, occurrences in the last few months have shown that the three countries are not willing to return to the fold.
On the consequences of the withdrawal on citizens engaged by ECOWAS institutions, Article 53 of Staff regulations states that when a state or a country withdraws from the community, citizens from that country will cease to work as staff for the institutions.
ECOWAS had allowed them to continue working, in the spirit of brotherhood.
But, The Nation gathered that letters of disengagement have finally been issued to citizens from the three countries, with a September termination date.
According to sources in the ECOWAS institutions, staff from AES countries have received their letters of disengagement.
One of the affected staff who also confirmed the report said they have been issued their letter of disengagement.
The staff who do not want to be mentioned in the print said they have been issued their letter with a September terminal date for all of them.”
The source said all of them from the three affected countries are expected to leave their job by September.
The Nation also learnt that all disengagement talks between the ECOWAS and the AES will commence in April as both parties have raised a team on each side for talks on total disengagement and modalities for future collaborations.
The negotiation, it was learnt, will involve a review of the contracts and Protocols about free trade and movement of persons.
A contingency plan that will kick off the negotiation is expected to be launched in April, during the extra-ordinary session of the Council of Minister Foreign Minister.
Announcing the official withdrawal of the AES countries, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray said: “The withdrawal of Burkina Faso, the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Niger from ECOWAS has become effective today, 29th January 2025.”
He said the next step would be the exit negotiations which would involve ECOWAS and the three countries.
For the meantime, ECOWAS said that passports and identity cards bearing its logo will remain valid for travel within the region for citizens from the three countries.
He also said trade and economic activities will also proceed under the existing ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, allowing goods and services from the three countries to move freely.
He explained that “These arrangements will be in place until the full determination of the modalities of our future arrangements to the three countries by the ECOWAS authority of head of state and government.”
Touray said it represents a blight on ECOWAS.
Touray feared that the exit of the three countries had overshadowed the gains of the regional bloc, especially when it’s marking its 50 years of its existence.
But the AES countries have taken some actions that seem to be incompatible with the ECOWAS approach.
Only recently, AES announced a 0.05 tariff on all goods coming into their region.
The three countries have also dumped the ECOWAS passport for the AES passport for its citizens.
He said the Commission is prepared to commence the modalities for their exit from the bloc and future engagement.
He pointed out that engagement with the three countries will commence as soon as they show commitment, saying that the three countries have already indicated interest to discuss with the Commission.
He said the expected discussions with the three countries would bother on institutional, legal, trade.
In the area of security, Touray said: “It is in our collective interest to work together in all areas, including in the area of security. ECOWAS sees the security of each and every one of us to be closely tied. For that reason, security collaboration will continue at all levels, not only in the ECOWAS States but across the region.”
He stressed that “ECOWAS has shown the whole world, and the community in particular, the value of being a member of ECOWAS. This is the region, the only region on the continent, where with a single ID card you can move from one end to another end. I’m not saying there are no problems, but legally you can move from one end to another end.
“You can pick up your passport, hop on a plane and go anywhere else without having to go through all these visa problems. This is also the region where member states can trade freely among themselves for produce that are qualified under ECOWAS’s trade liberalisation scheme. So this is what we must build on for the benefit of our community, and I believe nobody should have a problem with this.”