By Amofokhai Williams
President Bola Tinubu has approved the establishment of a high-level Presidential Petroleum Reform and Value Optimisation Task Force, tasking a team of industry heavyweights with delivering execution-ready blueprints to transform Nigeria’s petroleum sector within six months.
The Task Force will be chaired by Fola Adeola, co-founder of Guaranty Trust Bank and founder of the Fate Foundation, bringing decades of private sector expertise to bear on what the presidency described as a “time-bound, high-level executive working group.”
Other members include Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, Osagie Okunbor, Abubakar Suleiman, Adaeze Aguele, Farouk Gumel, Phillipa Osakwe-Okoye, and Seyi Bella. Mofoluwasho Fadayomi will serve as secretary.
President Tinubu has directed the Task Force to produce three major reform blueprints within a strict six-month timeline, with an interim report expected after three months.
The first deliverable is an Implementation Toolkit for Immediate Structural Fixes, encompassing draft legislative amendments, executive instruments, and institutional restructuring proposals designed to consolidate ongoing reforms.
The second and most ambitious, is a Capital and Liquidity Acceleration Blueprint aimed at unlocking between $5 billion and $10 billion in sectoral liquidity while safeguarding Nigeria’s sovereign interests.
The third component is a National Energy Transformation Strategy, a ten-year roadmap establishing measurable targets for production, foreign exchange earnings, GDP contribution, and cost competitiveness.
In a decisive move to eliminate bureaucratic fragmentation, the President has directed all existing committees, teams, and working groups established under various reform initiatives to align their activities with the new Task Force.
All ministries, departments, agencies, and regulators have been instructed to provide full technical support and submit inventories of ongoing initiatives to ensure coherence in the reform framework.
“The streamlining will ensure coordination, avoid duplication of mandates, and provide institutional clarity, thereby ensuring coherence in the petroleum sector reform architecture,” a statement from presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga read.
The Task Force is designed to operate as a technical reform body rather than a representative committee. It will engage industry operators, regulators, investors, and civil society as consultees while maintaining focus on actionable policy design and implementation strategies.
The group will report directly to the President, submitting monthly progress memoranda. Upon submission and acceptance of its final report, the Task Force will automatically dissolve.
The initiative reflects Tinubu’s determination to transform Nigeria’s petroleum industry into a “more competitive, transparent, and value-maximising sector capable of driving long-term economic growth, macroeconomic resilience, and industrial development.”
With global energy markets in flux and Nigeria seeking to maximize returns from its hydrocarbon resources while navigating the energy transition, the Task Force’s work carries significant implications for the country’s fiscal position and economic trajectory.
