EXCLUSIVE: In A Bold Move At Repositioning, NNPC Promotes, Redeploys Senior Management Personnel

… Okoye, Katagum Now Group Executive Directors

… Adetunji Now GED, Downstream; Abdulkabir GED, Gas & Power

… Yusuf, COO Gas & Power Retired

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has promoted and redeployed many senior management staff in a bold move to strategically reposition the Corporation to effectively take advantage of the global oil market for profitability in line with the mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The massive promotions and redeployments were sequel to existing vacancies occasioned by statutory retirements of some top management staff, which were yet to be filled.

The current repositioning also saw the Corporation changing the nomenclature of Chief Operating Officers (COOs) to Group Executive Directors.

THE WHISTLER had exclusively reported on Sunday that a massive shake-up was imminent at the Corporation this week.

In line with the Presidential approval for the repositioning exercise, the Chief Operating Officer in charge of Gas and Power at the NNPC, Usman Yusuf will proceed on retirement.

Following the retirement of Yusuf, THE WHISTLER can authoritatively report that the current COO, Corporate Services of the NNPC, Abdulkadir Ahmed, has been redeployed as the Group Executive Director in charge of the Gas and Power sector.

Ahmed is highly experienced in the gas and power sector having been the Managing Director of Nigeria Gas Marketing Company in Warri, Delta State.

Ahmed will also be bringing on board three decades of extensive experience covering diverse roles and responsibilities across the oil and gas value chain.

In his former role as the Managing Director of the Nigeria Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) , Ahmed led NGMC to promote the utilization and monetization of natural gas resources through rapid market expansion and strategic partnerships.

Noteworthy was his emplacement of a robust debt recovery strategy that helped in recovering over N80bn and $45m debt from gas off-takers which assisted in turning around the fortunes of the Company.

In his current role as Chief Operating Officer in charge of Corporate Services, Ahmed has helped in up-skilling leadership capabilities in NNPC, upgrading talent and capabilities, deploying core processes and automation as part of NNPC’s plan to drive significant growth in existing and new business segments.

Similarly, Engr. Adeyemi Adetunji has been redeployed as the Group Executive Director, Downstream. Adetunji, until his redeployment was the Chief Operating Officer, Downstream Division.

Also, the current Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Department of the NNPC, Sir Billy Okoye has been promoted as the Group Executive Director, Ventures and Business Development.

Okoye’s promotion to fill the vacuum was created by the retirement of the former Chief Operating Officer (Downstream), Mrs. Lawrencia Ndupu, who statutorily retired from office in December, 2020.

Okoye is an experienced Commercial Executive with demonstrable achievement in crude oil and petroleum products marketing, distribution and retailing, as well as LNG sales and marketing.

Prior to this appointment, Okoye was the Group General Manager, COMD, and in the recent past held sway as the Managing Director of NNPC’s flagship retail company – the NNPC Retail where he brought about several business improvements and unleashed new products including six variants of NNPC Lubricants.

He is an Energy Professional whose expertise covers the entire value chain of Upstream, Midstream and Downstream sectors of the industry.

He became the Executive Director (Commercial) of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company Ltd where he efficiently distributed petroleum products across the country.

He was later appointed the Managing Director of NNPC Retail Ltd, managing over 600 fuel stations (including floating stations in the Niger Delta area) and introduced the NNPC brand of lubricants into the Nigerian market.

Concluding the value chain, Billy went to Upstream sector to trade and market Nigeria’s crude oil and natural gas liquids as the Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division of NNPC.

Another promotion to the position of Group Executive Director is that of Aisha Ahmadu-Katagum who has been upgraded from GGM Supply Chain Management to Group Executive Director in charge of Corporate Services.

Katagum is an experienced Accountant with rich pedigree in commercials, shipping, and supply chain management.

Over the last three decades, Katagum has served NNPC in various capacities including General Manager Shipping, where she championed the implementation of the NNPC Shipping Strategy.

Only recently, she was Group General Manager Supply Chain Management where she managed the end-to-end strategic sourcing for the Corporation while driving standardization of procurement processes to reduce cost.

THE WHISTLER can authoritatively report that Mr. Alli Zarah, who is currently the General Manager Information Technology, National Petroleum Investment Management Services has been promoted as Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company.

Zarah is a distinguished upstream business automation and supply chain professional with over a decade and half experience on delivering innovation, digitalization leveraging advanced analytics and business transformation.

With over 15 years Upstream industry experience across oil and gas exploration and production, Zarah led the design and implementation of the NipeX e-MarketPlace system which is an automated platform for the Nigeria Upstream Oil & Gas Industry procurement process.

In addition, Zarah has helped in architecting several upstream supply chain transformation initiatives to significantly entrench efficiency and improve operational performance (reliability, costs, and quality).

Currently, he is coordinating the implementation of the Nigeria Upstream Cost Optimization Program (NUCOP) aimed at achieving sub $10/barrel unit operating cost.

He is a certified Project Management Professional and has a rich pedigree in IT and Upstream Technical computing including SAP ERP, Java, C++, Unix, Data Communication and System Integration to name a few.

He has equally embarked on several Strategy and Executive Programs in prestigious Academic Institutions in the United Kingdom and United States of America, notable among which are Kellogg School of Management and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Business School.

Prior to his appointment, he was the General Manager Supply Chain Management NAPIMS.

Zarah has helped streamline the existing NAPIMS Supply Chain processes/operations and equally organized his team to resolve some legacy logistics issues like the Steve Dore & Osubi Strip.

It is expected that Zarah will use his wealth of experience in the upstream sector which he gathered at NAPIMS to improve production in that sector.

In keeping to the mandate of gender balance, Sophie Mbakwe who is currently the General Manager Supply Chain has been promoted as Group General Manager Supply Chain.

The promotion is a confirmation that women are now being brought into the top management positions as key drivers of the TAPE Agenda of the NNPC under the leadership of the Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari.

In the same vein, approval has also been given for the redeployment of Mrs Rose Esshiet who is the current Group General Manager Finance to Crude Oil Marketing Department as the Group General Manager.

Eshiett, hitherto the Group General Manager Finance has wealth of experience in oil & gas financing, business accounting and tax compliance.

To her credit, she led several multi-billion-dollar alternative financing deals for oil and gas production growth.

She was the General Manager Finance & Accounts Crude Oil Marketing Division, Group General Manager Accounts and Subsequently Group General Manager Finance NNPC.

It is believed that coming from a finance background, Esshiet will bring sanity and stability into the sector.

Also approved is the redeployment of Mansur Sambo who was former MD of NPDC.

He has now been moved to the Nigerian Pipeline Storage Company, while Ada Oyetunde has been moved to NNPC Learning, Kaduna as the Group General Manager

For the PPMC, Ishaku Abdulahi has been asked to take charge as the Managing Director, while Engr Johnson Awoyemi takes over as Managing Director of NECTCO