EXCLUSIVE: Tinubu Appoints Pius Akinyelure As Board Chairman Of NNPCL, Retains Kyari As GCEO

President Bola Tinubu has appointed Chief Pius Akinyelure, as the Chairman of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, THE WHISTLER can authoritatively report.

This is just as the President has retained Mallam Mele Kyari as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Limited following his impressive performance which has been described as unrivalled in the entire history of the national oil company.

Before his appointment as Chairman, Akinyelure was a member of the board of the NNPC Limited.

Akinyelure, a seasoned and distinguished administrator, and an oil industry practitioner is being appointed to Chair the NNPC Limited Board about five months after the President dissolved the board of federal government’s agencies and parastatsals including that of the NNPC Limited.

Before the President’s dissolution of board of federal government parastatals on June 19 this year, the board of the NNPC Limited was chaired by Mrs Margary Okadigbo who was appointed on January 5, 2022 by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

She occupied the position for 17 months before the dissolution of the board by President Tinubu.

Findings by THE WHISTLER revealed that she is being replaced by Chief Akinyelure who is a certified Accountant with a Master of Science Degree in Management, specializing in organizational behaviour.

Chief Akinyelure also had over 30 years working experience in the Oil industry at top management/executive levels, both Upstream and Downstream.

Prior to his retirement from Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc on June 1, 1997, he was the Executive Director, Finance and External Relations for the company.

He has been Chairman/Director of several companies/financial institutions in the past, which include Wema Bank Plc, Credite Bank Ltd, Odu’a Investment Limited, Oluwa Glass Plc, Okitipupa Oil Palm Plc, Odu’a Telecomunications Limited, Cocoa Industries Nigeria Ltd, Hallmark Bank and West African Portland Cement Plc.

He is also Chairman/Director in several other companies like King Guards Nigeria Ltd, Seg Mahsen & Co.(NIG) LTD, POA Investment Ltd, Eres N.V Nig. Ltd, Transnational Computer Technology, SPA dredging Company Limited, Pak Oil Marketing Limited, ACOP Properties Limited, Betta Consortium (Ikoyi Hotels) and CAT Construction Company Limited.

THE WHISTLER understands that Kyari’s retention as NNPC Limited GCEO is a confirmation of the confidence which the President has in the reforms and programmes being implemented under his leadership.

Kyari has kept his promise to the NNPC Limited and Nigeria by increasing the nation’s oil reserves to 40 billion barrels, from 37 billion barrels.

The NNPC Boss has also assisted in resolving disputes around deep offshore bloc to further boost the nation’s oil production and ensuring the successful flag-off of the construction of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline project.

The project was described by former President Muhammadu Buhari as a game changer for the oil and gas industry.

The NNPC Group, which became a CAMA Company in 2021 following the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, grew its profit from N287bn in 2020 to N674bn in 2021 under Kyari’s leadership.

The N674bn profit posted by the NNPC Group in the 2021 financial period represents an increase of N387bn or 134.8 per cent when compared to the N287bn recorded in 2020.

The 2021 financial year made it the fourth consecutive years that the NNPC will be making its Audited Financial Statement public.

This was one of the innovations made by Kyari when he took over the helms of affairs of the National Oil Company.

Since he assumed office, Kyari has pursued his Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) agenda, a five-step strategic roadmap for NNPC’s attainment of efficiency and global excellence.

Kyari, during the inauguration, had said pursuing TAPE was the only way to turn around the corporation and make it competitive.

Under the roadmap, the Transparency component of the agenda was aimed at maintaining positive image, share values of integrity and transparency to all stakeholders, while the Accountability segment of the campaign is to assure compliance with business ethics, policies, regulations and accountability to all stakeholders.

In terms of the two-prong item of Performance Excellence, Kyari had said the idea was to entrench a high level of efficiency anchored on efficient implementation of business processes which would also emplace an appropriate reward system for exceptional performance among the workforce.

Just last month, the NNPC Limited and the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Malam Mele Kyari, won the 2023 Nigeria GovTech Awards for exceptional service delivery in the public sector.

While the National Oil Company won the Best Federal MDA in Digital Initiatives in Reengineering Government Processes Award, the GCEO carted home the Distinguished GovTech Trailblazer Award.

The awards were in recognition of the GCEO leadership’s proactive steps in activating the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) that is hinged on digital automation of the company’s processes.

The single, sure-footed act of automation, emplaced to, among others, mitigate the effects of COVID-19, has brought about efficiency, high performance, and sustenance of the NNPC Ltd’s operations post-pandemic, for which the GCEO is now referred to as “Mr. Automation” in the industry.

Significantly, the GCEO, through the NNPC IT Division, automated Key Performance Indicator Dashboard across the entire IT Enterprise and Architecture, thereby improving reporting efficiency real-time performance tracking.

Kyari also activated Microsoft Enterprise Additional Licenses for NNPC Digital Transformation initiatives, leading to an estimated cost-saving of over $1m to the Company.

Both the NNPC Ltd. and the GCEO shone like a thousand stars at the venue of the awards at the International Conference Centre.