President Bola Tinubu has named the co-founder of Guaranty Trust Bank and founder and chairman of the Fate Foundation, Fola Adeola, as the chairman of the newly established Presidential Petroleum Reform and Value Optimisation Taskforce.

The taskforce bears the responsibility of designing and sequencing the next phase of structural reforms in the country’s petroleum sector.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Friday disclosed that the taskforce would operate as a time-bound, high-level executive working group tasked with producing execution-ready reform blueprints.

Other members of the taskforce are Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, Osagie Okunbor, Abubakar Suleiman, Adaeze Aguele, Farouk Gumel, Phillipa Osakwe-Okoye, and Seyi Bella, with Mofoluwasho Fadayomi serving as secretary.

According to the statement, the taskforce will consolidate ongoing reforms, unlock capital within the petroleum sector, and strengthen the country’s position as a leading global energy investment destination.

“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,” it read.

The taskforce will operate as a technical reform body rather than a representative committee, engaging industry operators, regulators, investors, and civil society as consultees while focusing on actionable policy design and implementation strategies.

It will report directly to the President and provide monthly progress memoranda, with an interim report expected after three months and final outputs within six months of inauguration.

The statement added, “President Tinubu has directed the taskforce to deliver three major reform blueprints. The first deliverable is the Implementation Toolkit for Immediate Structural Fixes, including draft legislative amendments, executive instruments, and institutional restructuring proposals.

“The second deliverable is the Capital & Liquidity Acceleration Blueprint, aimed at unlocking $5bn to $10bn in sectoral liquidity while safeguarding Nigeria’s sovereign interests.

“The third blueprint will focus on the National Energy Transformation Strategy, a 10-year roadmap with measurable targets for production, foreign exchange earnings, GDP contribution, and cost competitiveness.”

According to the statement, the President has directed all Ministries, Departments, Agencies, regulators, and relevant institutions to provide full technical support to the taskforce and to submit inventories of ongoing initiatives to ensure alignment with the emerging reform framework.

The President also directed all existing committees, teams, and working groups established under various reform initiatives within the sector to align their activities, reporting structures, and work programmes with the new taskforce.

“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 further directed that all relevant documentation, institutional knowledge, and ongoing workstreams should be made available to the taskforce to support the development and implementation of its comprehensive reform framework.

Onanuga described the creation of the taskforce as “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.”

The taskforce will automatically dissolve upon submission and acceptance of its final report.

Adeola, a chartered accountant and entrepreneur, co-founded Guaranty Trust Bank in 1990 and served as its pioneer managing director until 2002.

He established the Fate Foundation in 2000 to promote entrepreneurship and wealth creation in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s petroleum sector has undergone significant reforms under the Tinubu administration, including the removal of petrol subsidy, unification of foreign exchange windows, and efforts to increase crude oil production from one million barrels per day to 1.5 million barrels per day.