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President Bola Tinubu on Thursday officially inaugurated the newly appointed Board and Executive Management Team of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), with a strong directive to prioritize increased oil and gas production.
The inauguration, which took place at the Presidential Villa in Abuja shortly before the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Summit, marked a pivotal moment for Nigeria’s oil industry as the administration moves to revamp the country’s energy sector.
President Tinubu appointed the new NNPCL leadership seven weeks ago, effectively ending the tenure of Mele Kyari as Group Chief Executive Officer.
The new leadership is expected to steer the national oil company in line with his administration’s strategic economic vision.
The newly constituted board includes:
Ahmadu Musa Kida (Board Chairman – Borno State), Adedapo Segun,
Bello Rabiu (North West); Yusuf Usman (North East), Babs Omotowa (North Central; former MD of NLNG),
Austin Avuru (South-South; Non-Executive Director), David Ige (South West; Non-Executive Director), Henry Obih (South East; Non-Executive Director), Lydia Shehu Jafiya (Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance – representing the ministry) and Aminu Said Ahmed (representing the Ministry of Petroleum Resources).
All appointments officially took effect from April 2, 2025.
In his charge to the board, President Tinubu outlined a series of ambitious production targets, calling for a comprehensive portfolio review of both NNPC-operated and joint venture assets.
He stressed the need for alignment with the company’s value optimization objectives.
The president set new national energy goals: Increase daily crude oil production to 2 million barrels by 2027 and 3 million barrels by 2030;
Scale up daily gas output to 8 billion cubic feet by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030; Boost NNPC’s refining capacity to 200,000 barrels per day by 2027 and 500,000 barrels per day by 2030.
“These targets are not just aspirational – they are central to our economic revitalization strategy,” Tinubu said. “Your task is clear: deliver results.”
The profiles of new leadership indicate that Ahmadu Musa Kida, the newly appointed Board Chairman, hails from Borno State and holds a civil engineering degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
He also obtained a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Français du Pétrole (IFP), Paris. Kida began his career at Elf Petroleum Nigeria before joining Total E&P, where he rose to become Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015.
In 2024, he served as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group.
Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan Ojulari, the new Group CEO of NNPCL, is from Kwara State. Prior to his appointment, he was the Executive Vice President and COO of Renaissance Africa Energy. Under his leadership, Renaissance led a consortium of indigenous firms in the landmark $2.4 billion acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), signaling his capacity for managing complex, high-stake energy deals.
The new leadership comes at a time when Nigeria’s oil sector faces mounting global competition, domestic challenges, and the imperative to align with global energy transition trends.
