By Musa Ibrahim
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has established a Presidential Petroleum Reform and Value Optimisation Taskforce to design and sequence the next phase of structural reforms in Nigeria’s petroleum sector, in what the administration describes as a strategic move to deepen ongoing reforms and strengthen the country’s position as a global energy investment destination.
The high-level reform body will be chaired by Mr. Fola Adeola, co-founder of Guaranty Trust Bank and founder and chairman of Fate Foundation.
Adeola will lead the taskforce in coordinating the group’s work and ensuring the timely delivery of its mandate.
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 establishment of the taskforce was disclosed in a statement issued last Friday by Mr. Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the President on information and strategy.
According to the statement, the taskforce will function as a time bound, high level executive working group tasked with producing execution ready reform blueprints aimed at consolidating ongoing reforms within Nigeria’s petroleum sector.
Onanuga said that the initiative reflects the administration’s determination to accelerate structural changes across the industry.
“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, macroeconomic resilience, and industrial development,” the statement said.
The taskforce will operate primarily as a technical reform body rather than a representative committee.
It will engage industry operators, regulators, investors and civil society organisations as consultees while focusing on actionable policy design and implementation strategies for the petroleum sector.
According to the presidency, the group will report directly to the President and submit monthly progress memoranda on its activities.
An interim report is expected three months after inauguration, while the final reform outputs are scheduled to be delivered within six months.
President Tinubu has directed the taskforce to produce three major reform blueprints intended to guide the next phase of policy and institutional restructuring within the sector.
The first blueprint will focus on what the administration describes as an Implementation Toolkit for Immediate Structural Fixes.
This component will include draft legislative amendments, executive policy instruments and proposals for institutional restructuring designed to address existing structural bottlenecks within the petroleum industry.
The second deliverable will be the Capital and Liquidity Acceleration Blueprint.
This framework is expected to identify mechanisms for unlocking between five billion and ten billion dollars in sectoral liquidity while ensuring that Nigeria’s sovereign interests are adequately protected.
Officials believe the liquidity injection could stimulate new investments across upstream, midstream and downstream segments of the petroleum value chain.
The third reform framework will involve the development of a National Energy Transformation Strategy.
The document is expected to serve as a 10-year roadmap outlining measurable targets for crude oil production, foreign exchange earnings, contribution of the petroleum sector to Nigeria’s gross domestic product and improvements in cost competitiveness within the industry.
The presidency said the strategy is intended to align Nigeria’s petroleum resources with broader economic transformation objectives.
To support the work of the taskforce, President Tinubu has directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as sector regulators and relevant institutions to provide full technical cooperation.
These institutions are required to submit inventories of ongoing initiatives within the petroleum sector in order to ensure alignment with the emerging reform framework.
In addition, the President directed all existing committees, technical teams and working groups previously established under various reform initiatives in the sector to align their activities with the new taskforce.
According to the presidency, the directive is intended to streamline reform efforts across the industry.
“The streamlining will ensure coordination, avoid duplication of mandates, and provide institutional clarity, thereby ensuring coherence in the petroleum sector reform architecture,” the statement noted.
The President also directed that all relevant documentation, institutional knowledge and ongoing workstreams across the petroleum sector should be made available to the taskforce.
The aim, according to the statement, is to enable the group to build on existing initiatives while developing a comprehensive reform framework for the industry.
Onanuga described the creation of the taskforce as a strategic presidential instrument designed to accelerate reforms and strengthen governance within the petroleum sector.
“The creation of the taskforce represents a strategic presidential instrument to accelerate petroleum sector reforms, strengthen governance architecture, optimise national energy assets, and position Nigeria’s petroleum resources as a foundation for sustainable economic transformation,” he said.
The taskforce has been structured as a temporary body and will automatically dissolve after the submission and acceptance of its final report.
