The Minister of State for Petroleum and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Ibe Kachikwu, has announced the unbundling of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, into seven independent companies, with five solely focused on profitability.

The new companies, according to Kachikwu, who made the announcement on Tuesday, will now be headed by Chief Executive Officers, CEOs, instead of the old Group Executive Directors, GEDs.

The five new profit making companies will take care of Upstream, Downstream, Gas & Power, Refineries, Ventures, Corporate Planning & Services and Finance and Accounts.

They will be headed by Bello Rabiu (Upstream); Henry Ikem-Onih (downstream); Anibor Kragha (Refineries); Saudu Mohammed (Gas & Power), and; Babatunde Adeniran, Ventures.

The remaining two, Finance & Services and Corporate Services, will be headed by Isiaka Abdulrazaq and Isa Inuwa respectively.

President Muhammadu Buhari, upon coming into office, had made ridding the NNPC of its corrupt tendencies and turning it into a profitable venture rather than the debt-burdened company it had been a priority.

Kachikwu last week told Nigerians that the federal government would break the state-owned oil company in 30 independent companies and ensure that it stopped posing losses by the end of the year.

“For the first time, we are unbundling the subset of the NNPC to 30 independent companies with their own Managing Directors. Titles like Group Executive Directors are going to disappear and in their place you are going to have Chief Executive Officers and they are going to take responsibilities for their titles. At the end of the day, the CEO of an upstream company must deliver an upstream result,” Dr. Kachikwu stated.