Anibor Kragha is Executive Secretary of the African Refiners & Distributors Association (ARDA), the pan-African association representing the downstream oil sector, a position he has held since April 2020. He leads ARDA’s work to promote efficient, economic and sustainable investment across Africa’s downstream supply chain and to strengthen energy security on the continent. Re-elected for a second term in 2023, he was reappointed for a third term in April 2026, as ARDA marked 20 years since its founding in Cape Town.

Kragha served as ARDA President from March 2019 to March 2020. At the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), he was Group General Manager, Treasury, from September 2015 to March 2016 and Chief Operating Officer of the Refineries & Petrochemicals Directorate from April 2016 to July 2019, overseeing four refineries with a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per stream day. Earlier, he spent more than a decade with Mobil Producing Nigeria and ExxonMobil affiliates in audit, commercial and treasury roles in Nigeria and the United States, becoming Upstream Treasurer for ExxonMobil Affiliates in Nigeria.

He began his career as a process engineer with Polaroid Corporation in the United States. Kragha holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, an MS in Plastics Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and an MS in Chemical Engineering and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earned through its Leaders for Global Operations dual-degree fellowship. He has also been an independent non-executive director of Eterna Plc since October 2021.

His focus areas include near-term investment in refining, storage and distribution to address Africa’s energy deficits, stronger intra-African trade in petroleum products, better access to finance for downstream companies and cleaner fuels such as natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas. During ARDA Week 2026 in Cape Town, ARDA signed a memorandum of understanding with the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) covering infrastructure development, regulatory frameworks and technical and financial support.