President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has taken a fresh step to accelerate reforms in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry with the establishment of a Presidential Petroleum Reform and Value Optimisation Taskforce aimed at reshaping the sector and attracting new investment.
In a statement released on Friday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the President named Fola Adeola, co-founder of Guaranty Trust Bank, as chairman of the newly created taskforce.
According to the presidency, the high-level team will function as a time-bound executive working group tasked with designing and sequencing the next phase of structural reforms in the petroleum sector while producing practical, execution-ready policy blueprints.
Other members of the taskforce include Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, Osagie Okunbor, Abubakar Suleiman, Adaeze Aguele, Farouk Gumel, Phillipa Osakwe-Okoye and Seyi Bella, while Mofoluwasho Fadayomi will serve as secretary.
“The initiative reflects the President’s commitment to transforming Nigeria’s petroleum industry into a more competitive, transparent and value-maximising sector capable of driving long-term economic growth and industrial development,” the statement said.
The taskforce has been mandated to deliver three major reform blueprints, including an implementation toolkit for immediate structural fixes covering draft legislative amendments, executive instruments and proposals for institutional restructuring across the industry.
It will also produce a Capital and Liquidity Acceleration Blueprint aimed at unlocking between $5bn and $10bn in sector financing, as well as a National Energy Transformation Strategy a 10-year roadmap with measurable targets for crude production, foreign exchange earnings and the sector’s contribution to the nation’s economy.