President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has approved the creation of a Presidential Petroleum Reform and Value Optimisation Taskforce and appointed Fola Adeola as its chairman.
The announcement was made on Friday in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, who explained that the taskforce will operate as a time-bound, high-level executive working group responsible for designing and coordinating the next phase of structural reforms in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.
Other members of the team include Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, Osagie Okunbor, Abubakar Suleiman, Adaeze Aguele, Farouk Gumel, Phillipa Osakwe-Okoye, and Seyi Bella, while Mofoluwasho Fadayomi will serve as the secretary.
According to the statement, Adeola will oversee the activities of the group and ensure that its assignments are completed on schedule.
The taskforce will report directly to the President and submit monthly progress updates.
The government explained that the body will focus on producing practical reform plans aimed at consolidating existing changes, attracting investment, and strengthening Nigeria’s competitiveness in the global energy market.
The taskforce is expected to deliver three key reform plans within six months of its inauguration, with an interim report scheduled after three months.
The first will be an Implementation Toolkit for Immediate Structural Fixes, including proposed legislative amendments, executive actions, and institutional restructuring measures.
The second deliverable will be a Capital and Liquidity Acceleration Blueprint, designed to unlock between $5 billion and $10 billion in liquidity in the petroleum sector while protecting Nigeria’s sovereign interests.
The third plan will outline a National Energy Transformation Strategy, a ten-year roadmap with clear targets for oil production, foreign exchange earnings, contribution to GDP, and improved cost competitiveness.
The statement added that the taskforce will function as a technical reform body rather than a representative committee, consulting with industry players, regulators, investors, and civil society while focusing primarily on actionable policy design and implementation.
President Tinubu also directed all ministries, departments, agencies, regulators, and other relevant institutions to provide full technical support to the taskforce and submit details of their ongoing initiatives to ensure alignment with the planned reform framework.
