Daily Watch – NNPC gets new boss, Medview goes to London

5th August 2015

  • President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the new Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Kachikwu, an Executive Vice Chairman of ExxonMobil Africa, reportedly met with President Buhari on Monday night to finalise talks on his vision for the state owned corporation, which has been enmeshed in allegations of corruption and dubious accounting practices. Kachikwu, a distinction graduate of Law from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, has worked as an Investment Attorney in the United States, as General Counsel with Texaco Upstream and Downstream in Nigeria, as Executive Vice Chairman of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited and as General Counsel for ExxonMobil Nigeria affiliate Upstream and Downstream Companies in Nigeria. He also lectured in Nigeria and at Harvard. Oil and Gas industry operators are describing his appointment as one of the best things to happen to the industry in recent times.
  • President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Umaru Garba Danbatta, a professor, as the new executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), according to a statement issued on Tuesday. Danbatta, who holds a Doctorate Degree in Electronic Engineering, takes over from Eugene Juwah whose tenure expired on July 29, 2015.
  • In a report released Monday, The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,(NNPC) was bashed for failing to recover the full value for oil sold on behalf of the country over many years. The report was released by The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), a US based independent non profit organization. The body said the NNPC’s failures stem from poorly structured deals and unaccountable spending. according to NRGI, The most pressing problems with NNPC oil sales occur in five areas,. These are domestic crude allocation (DCA), revenue retention by NNPC and its subsidiaries, oil for products swap agreements, the abundance of middle men, and poor corporate governance and oversight.
  • Medview Airlines will commence commercial flights operations on the Lagos-London route from November this year, Managing Director of the airline, Muneer Bankole, said. It would make use of its newly acquired Boeing 767-300 aircraft.