President Bola Tinubu has approved a major restructuring of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) board, leading to the replacement of its chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure, and the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari.
According to a statement from presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, all board members appointed alongside Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023 have also been removed.
The newly constituted 11-member board features Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as the non-executive chairman.
Additionally, Adedapo Segun, who took over as the Chief Financial Officer from Umaru Isa Ajiya last November, has been retained on the new board following Tinubu’s decision.
Representing Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, six non-executive directors have been appointed. Bello Rabiu will represent the North West, Yusuf Usman the North East, and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), will represent the North Central.
In the southern regions, Austin Avuru has been named the non-executive director for the South-South, David Ige for the South West, and Henry Obih for the South East.
Furthermore, Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will serve as the ministry’s representative on the board, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
These appointments take effect immediately, beginning April 2.
Invoking the authority granted under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, President Tinubu underscored that the board's restructuring is pivotal to improving operational efficiency, rebuilding investor trust, enhancing local content, driving economic growth, and expanding gas commercialization and diversification.
As part of its mandate, the new board has been tasked with conducting a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value-maximization objectives.
Since assuming office, Tinubu’s administration has actively pursued reforms in the oil sector to attract new investments. In 2023, NNPC secured $17 billion in fresh investments, and the administration aims to increase this to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
The government has also set ambitious production targets, seeking to boost crude oil output to two million barrels per day by 2027 and three million barrels daily by 2030. Simultaneously, the target for gas production has been raised to eight billion cubic feet daily by 2027, with plans to scale it up to 10 billion cubic feet by 2030.
Moreover, President Tinubu has directed the new board to enhance NNPC’s refining capacity, with a goal of increasing its share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels daily by 2027 and reaching 500,000 barrels per day by 2030.
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