President Bola Ahmed Tinubu this morning sacked the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari. He was replaced with Bashir Ojulari whose appointment took immediate effect from April 2, 2025.
The President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced this in a press statement he issued early this Wednesday morning.
In the statement titled, ‘President Tinubu reconstitutes NNPC Limited board, appoints new Chairman, Group CEO’, 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 Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, is now a member of the new board.
Six board members, non-executive directors, represent the country’s geopolitical zones.
Bello Rabiu represents the North West, Yusuf Usman represents the North East, and Babs Omotowa, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas, represents North Central.
Others are 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, the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry on the new board, while Aminu Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, according to the statement.
Tinubu invoked the powers granted under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 and maintained that the board’s restructuring is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency, restoring investor’s confidence, boosting local content, driving economic growth, and advancing gas commercialisation and diversification.
The President directed the new board “to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives.”
According to Onanuga, in 2024, NNPC reported $17bn 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,” he noted.
Onanuga said that the President 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, an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, is from Borno State. He had a degree in civil engineering in 1984.
Kida also obtained a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol in Paris.
The new NNPCL Group CEO, Ojulari, 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, worth $2.4bn.
Ojulari is also an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, having 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.
In the statement, Tinubu thanked the old board members for their dedicated service to NNPCL, particularly their efforts in rehabilitating the old Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which enabled them to resume petroleum product production after prolonged shutdowns.
The President wished them well in their future endeavours.
PHOTO: Bashir Bayo Ojulari, New NNPCL CEO.