The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has continued its corporate restructuring by announcing the appointment of Adesua Dozie, the first female Regional General Counsel for Africa Upstream and Vice Chairman of ExxonMobil Companies in Nigeria, alongside three other directors.
The new executives joining the leadership team include Rowland Ewubare, group chief operating officer at NNPC; Mumuni Dagazau, executive vice president for downstream; Sophia Mbakwe, executive vice president of business services; and Adesua Dozie, who will serve as company secretary and chief legal officer.
Rowland Ewubare
Rowland Ewubare is a Nigerian legal professional and former top executive in the oil and gas industry.
He served as the chief operating officer (COO) for Joint Ventures and Business Development at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
In July 2020, Ewubare resigned from his position as COO, citing personal reasons related to reuniting with his family in the US. He emphasised that his departure was amicable and not due to any disagreements within the corporation.
Prior to this role, he was the Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a key subsidiary of NNPC responsible for overseeing the Nigerian government’s investments in the upstream sector.
After earning his law degree from Harvard, Ewubare began his career at Schlumberger, a global oilfield services firm, where he worked in the New York office as Global Corporate Counsel.
He later became General Counsel for one of the company’s subsidiaries in Silicon Valley, a role that paved the way for his return to Nigeria, where he was appointed Executive Director of the company 22 years ago.
Mumuni Dagazau
Mumuni Dagazau is a business strategist with over 30 years of experience in the private sector. Before his appointment, he was the Chief Operating Officer at A.A. Rano Nigeria Limited. Dagazau is vastly experienced in establishing operational organizational optimization across diverse industries with core competence in the Oil and Gas sector.
Dagazau has, over the years, in various capacities, become recognized for his talent in Strategy Development, Process Optimization, and Corporate Vision actualization with maximum revenue generation.
As chief operating officer of OVH Energy, he was responsible for Supply and Trading, Customer Service, Sales and Marketing, ASPM, Engineering and Terminal business.
In his previous roles, he has guided companies to establish themselves as viable businesses. Dagazu is an associate member of the Association of Business Executives, UK and an Alumnus of Valley Forge Military Academy in the US.
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Sophia Mbakwe
Sophia Mbakwe, is a graduate of Law from Edo State University, Ekpoma and the Nigerian Law School (1993). She performed her mandatory NYSC and was retained at the renowned law firm of Abdulai, Taiwo, and Co. where she specialized in commercial and civil litigation.
In 1995, she joined Statoil, now Equinor, where she spent 19 years, rising to the position of Manager, Government, Public Affairs and Head Legal and Business development. As Head of CSR, Sophia deployed a sustainable community development process which led to Statoil receiving the Excellence sustainability award for the Akassa Community award at the World Petroleum Congress and by the CWC.
In 2015, she joined the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as the pioneer GM of the contracts and procurement department in the Group Headquarters.
In that role, Mbakwe was responsible for coordination of SCM support & advisory services across NNPC Strategic business Units; she supported the review & adoption of revised Supply Chain Management policy and process for the first time in over 20 years and served as Secretary of the NNPC Tenders Board, from 2015 to October 2022.
Mbakwe secured approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement for the use of NipeX Portal for Electronic Bid Submission to ensure Business continuity and also secured approval from ICRC for the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) strategy for the Downstream Critical Infrastructure (Pipelines, Depots, and associated Terminals).
As Team Lead, SCM Refinery Rehabilitation team, Sophia led the team of the Refineries Project Rehabilitation Coordinators (RPC) and the Tender Evaluation Team to the successful delivery of the contracting process & award of contract for the three (3) national Refineries including the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC), and the Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC) respectively.
Mbakwe was appointed MD/CEO of NNPC Energy Services Ltd on October 17, 2022. Mbakwe is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and is a Trustee of SCORE CHARITY – the Sickle Cell Cohort Research (SCORE) Foundation
Adesua Dozie
Adesua Dozie is a highly accomplished Nigerian lawyer with more than two decades of experience advising multinational corporations across Africa.
In June 2023, she became the first woman to be appointed Vice Chairman of ExxonMobil’s Nigerian affiliates Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited and Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, marking a significant milestone in the company’s 70-year presence in Nigeria.
She studied law at the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom, before earning a Master of Laws (LL.M) from Cornell Law School in New York.
Before joining ExxonMobil, Adesua held senior legal roles in various multinational companies. She was previously general counsel for GE Africa, where she played a key role in providing strategic legal advice to support the company’s growth across the continent. She also gained experience in the upstream oil and gas sector during her time with Elf Petroleum (now Total Upstream).
Adesua joined ExxonMobil in 2019 as General Counsel and was appointed executive director later that same year.