President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the composition of the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as provided for under Section 1(2) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Act of 1997, as amended.

Mr. Buhari also removed Ibe Kachikwu as group managing director of the corporation, a statement by presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, showed.

He however allowed him to remain as minister of state for petroleum and will serve as chairman of the new NNPC board.

The new NNPC GMD is Maikanti Kacalla Baru, according to the presidency.

The new board is composed of the following:
A. Chairman-Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum;
B. Group Managing Director- Dr Maikanti Kacalla Baru;
C. The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance; and
D. The following six persons:
1. Mallam Abba Kyari
2. Dr Thomas M.A John
3. Dr Pius O. Akinyelure
4. Dr Tajuddeen Umar
5. Mallam Mohammed Lawal, and
6. Mallam Yusuf Lawal.

Dr. M. K. Baru attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in Kaduna State of Nigeria; where he obtained Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) with a first class honors. He also holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical engineering.

Before his Recent appointment Dr. Baru had worked in various capacities in both the Upstream and Downstream Sectors of NNPC. These includes Group General Manager of Greenfield Refinery Projects, Managing Director of Hyson, Executive Director of Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), General Manager – Gas Division of NAPIMS, Manager – Operations, Procurement Management Services and Manager – Engineering for National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO).

President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and replaced him with Maikanti Baru. In a press statement issued today in Abuja, the president office stated that Kachikwu as the minister for State for Petroleum will now be the chairman of the Board of the NNPC.

See full statement below:

PRESIDENT BUHARI APPROVES NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR NNPC

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the composition of the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as provided for under Section 1(2) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Act of 1997, as amended.
The new board is composed of the following:
A. Chairman-Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum;
B. Group Managing Director- Dr Maikanti Kacalla Baru;
C. The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance; and
D. The following six persons:
1. Mallam Abba Kyari
2. Dr Thomas M.A John
3. Dr Pius O. Akinyelure
4. Dr Tajuddeen Umar
5. Mallam Mohammed Lawal, and
6. Mallam Yusuf Lawal.
President Buhari urges the new board to ensure the successful delivery of the mandate of the NNPC, ” and serve the nation by upholding the public trust placed on them in managing this critical national asset.”

FEMI ADESINA
Special Adviser
(Media and Publicity)
July 4, 2016

Leadway Asssurance Ltd is collaborating with the global reinsurance giant, Swiss Re, in championing the course of agricultural  insurance awareness creation  in Nigeria.

Leadway, said it was spurred to act in this direction following  realisation that though agriculture is a very popular business in Nigeria, it is obvious that seven out of every 10 Nigerians live through agricultural activities, agric insurance is close to non-existence in Nigeria.

This is because over the years, despite the huge population of Nigerians who engaged in agriculture, only the federal government owned Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC)  provides Agric insurance  to farmers.

The insurance services provided by the corporation is only for the few farmers who secure bank credits through the various SMEs loan scheme provided by government.

All farmers who do not access government loans are excluded from the corporation’s insurance services mainly because of ignorance and lack of driving force to compel them to buy insurance.

Against this backdrop, many farmers are excluded from agric insurance services in the country while they are frequently exposed to losses from natural risk occurrences like flood, fire outbreaks and all forms of farm diseases which often impoverish farmers and limit their chances of business growth.

But currently, Leadway assurance said it has resolved to take the opportunity of agric insurance liberalisation  instituted by the National Insurance Commission( NAICOM) few years back to popularise Agric insurance among Nigerian farmers.

Zenvus zInsure will be a great solution to help the agro insurance industry in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has sacked top executives of Skye Bank over capital adequacy issues, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday.

Chief Executive Timothy Oguntayo, who led Skye Bank to acquire nationalised lender Mainstreet Bank in 2014, resigned before a central bank announcement on Monday, the source added.

Last year, the central bank gave three commercial banks until June 2016 to recapitalise after they failed to hit a minimum capital adequacy rate of 10 percent.

The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) has said the volume of business underwritten by the insurance industry in 2015 reached N350 billion ($1 billion), against N294 billion in 2014. This represents an increase of about 19 per cent.

The industry remains very small and will need to grow. At $1 billion premium,  it is less than 0.20% of the GDP of Nigeria which is troubling.