President Bola Tinubu has dismissed Mele Kyari as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Pius Akinyelure as the board chairman.
In a major restructuring, Tinubu appointed Bashir Ojulari as the new CEO, effective April 2, 2025.
Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced the changes in a statement titled “President Tinubu Reconstitutes NNPC Limited Board, Appoints New Chairman, Group CEO.”
He confirmed that all board members appointed alongside Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023 have been relieved of their duties.
The newly constituted 11-member board includes Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as the non-executive chairman. Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Ajiya as Chief Financial Officer in November 2023, has also been named to the new board.
Six non-executive directors, representing Nigeria’s geopolitical zones, have been appointed: Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), and Babs Omotowa (North Central).
Others include Austin Avuru (South-South), David Ige (South West), and Henry Obih (South East).
Additionally, 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. All appointments take effect immediately.
Invoking Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, Tinubu emphasized that the restructuring aims to enhance operational efficiency, restore investor confidence, boost local content, drive economic growth, and advance gas commercialization and diversification.
He also directed the new board to conduct a strategic review of NNPC’s joint venture assets to align with value maximization objectives.
Since assuming office in 2023, Tinubu’s administration has implemented reforms in the oil sector.
According to Onanuga, NNPC secured $17 billion in new investments in 2024, with plans to increase this to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
The government also aims to raise oil production to two million barrels per day by 2027 and three million by 2030, while boosting gas production to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion by 2030.
The new board is expected to increase NNPC’s crude oil refining capacity to 200,000 barrels per day by 2027 and 500,000 by 2030.
New board chairman Ahmadu Musa Kida, from Borno State, holds a civil engineering degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from Institut Francaise du Petrol in Paris.
He previously worked at Elf Petroleum Nigeria before joining Total Exploration and Production, where he became Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015.
In 2024, he was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group.
Kida is also a former basketball player and President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation.
The new NNPC Limited Group CEO, Bashir Ojulari, hails from Kwara State.
Before his appointment, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His firm led a consortium that acquired Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria in a landmark $2.4 billion deal. An alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Ojulari holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
He began his career as a process engineer at Elf Aquitaine before joining Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd in 1991.
Over the years, he worked in Europe and the Middle East in various roles, including petroleum process engineering, strategic planning, and asset management.
In 2015, he was appointed Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company.
President Tinubu expressed gratitude to the outgoing board members for their service, particularly in rehabilitating the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which recently resumed petroleum product production after extended shutdowns.