Tinubu Reconstitutes NNPC Board, Appoints Bashir Ojulari as New Group CEO

President Bola Tinubu has approved a major shake-up in the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, removing the Chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure, and the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mallam Mele Kyari.

In a statement released in the early hours of Wednesday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy), Tinubu announced the removal of all board members who were appointed alongside Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023.

The newly constituted 11-member board will be led by Engineer Bashir Ojulari as the new GCEO, while Ahmadu Kida takes over as Non-Executive Chairman.

Also appointed to the board is Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Ajiya as Chief Financial Officer in November 2023. The board includes six non-executive directors representing Nigeria’s geopolitical zones. They are:

Bello Rabiu (North West)

Yusuf Usman (North East)

Babs Omotowa (North Central), former Managing Director of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG)

Austin Avuru (South-South)

David Ige (South-West)

Henry Obih (South-East).

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

The appointments take effect from 2 April 2025.

President Tinubu invoked Section 59, Subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act (2021) to justify the board’s restructuring, emphasising the need to enhance operational efficiency, restore investor confidence, boost local content, drive economic growth, and advance gas commercialisation and diversification.

He also mandated the new board to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC’s operations and joint venture assets to align with value-maximisation objectives.

Since assuming office in 2023, President Tinubu has pushed reforms aimed at attracting investments into Nigeria’s oil sector. In 2024, NNPC reported $17 billion in new investments. The administration now targets $30 billion in investments by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.

Furthermore, the government aims to increase crude oil production to two million barrels per day by 2027 and three million barrels per day by 2030. Gas production is also projected to rise to eight billion cubic feet per day by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030.

Similarly, the new board has been tasked with increasing NNPC’s share of refined crude oil output to 200,000 barrels per day by 2027 and 500,000 barrels per day by 2030.

The new NNPC Board Chairman, Ahmadu Kida, hails from Borno State. A graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, he earned a civil engineering degree in 1984 and later obtained a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris.

Kida began his career at Elf Petroleum Nigeria before joining Total Exploration and Production in 1985. He rose to become Total Nigeria’s Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015 and, in 2024, served as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group. Beyond the oil sector, Kida is a former basketball player and served as President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF).

Engineer Bashir Ojulari, the newly appointed GCEO, hails from Kwara State. Before this appointment, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. He recently led a consortium of indigenous energy firms in acquiring the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) in a landmark $2.4 billion transaction.

Ojulari is also an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He began his career at Elf Aquitaine as Nigeria’s first petroleum process engineer before joining Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria in 1991. Over the years, he held key roles in Europe and the Middle East as a petroleum engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager. In 2015, he became the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO). He has also served as chairman and board trustee member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.

President Tinubu expressed appreciation to the outgoing board members for their contributions to NNPC Limited, particularly their efforts in rehabilitating the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which resumed petroleum production after prolonged shutdowns.

He wished them success in their future endeavours.