ABUJA, Nigeria – President Bola Tinubu has approved a significant restructuring of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited board, dismissing Group Chief Executive Officer Mallam Mele Kyari and Chairman Chief Pius Akinyelure, effective April 2, 2025.
Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari has been appointed as the new Group CEO, while Ahmadu Musa Kida assumes the role of non-executive chairman. Adedapo Segun, who took over as chief financial officer last November, will also join the new board.
The announcement was made in a statement released by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy).
President Tinubu emphasized that this restructuring is essential to enhance operational efficiency, restore investor confidence, boost local content, drive economic growth, and advance gas commercialization and diversification within the petroleum sector.
In addition to the CEO and chairman, President Tinubu removed all other board members appointed in November 2023. The new 11-man board includes six non-executive directors representing Nigeria's geopolitical zones: Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), Babs Omotowa (North Central), Austin Avuru (South-South), David Ige (South West), and Henry Obih (South East).
Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry on the board, with Aminu Said Ahmed representing the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
President Tinubu, invoking powers granted under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, has tasked the new board with an immediate action plan: conducting a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximization objectives.
The Tinubu administration has set ambitious targets for the oil sector, aiming to increase investment to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030. It also targets raising oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million daily by 2030, while simultaneously increasing gas production to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030. 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.
Ahmadu Musa Kida, the new board chairman, is an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, with a degree in civil engineering, and holds a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris. He hails from Borno State.