Tinubu taps GTBank co-founder Fola Adeola to lead Petroleum Sector Reform Taskforce

President Bola Tinubu has established a new taskforce to drive the next phase of Nigeria’s petroleum sector reform, appointing veteran banker and business leader Fola Adeola to head the initiative as part of the administration’s accelerating push to optimise value from the country’s oil and gas resources.

The appointment places one of Nigeria’s most respected private sector figures at the centre of a reform agenda that has gathered significant momentum in recent months. Adeola is best known as co-founder of Guaranty Trust Bank, which he helped establish in 1990 alongside Tayo Aderinokun, serving as its pioneer Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for twelve years. Since retiring from banking, he has chaired a range of Nigerian companies spanning investment management, energy, and infrastructure, and has served in public roles including as Chairman of the National Pension Commission.

In the energy domain specifically, Adeola served as chairman of Eterna Plc, an integrated oil marketing company involved in downstream petroleum distribution and lubricants production, experience that makes him a credible choice to navigate the complex commercial and regulatory terrain of Nigeria’s petroleum sector.

The taskforce is expected to complement a sweeping set of reforms already set in motion by the Tinubu administration. Through Executive Order 9 of 2026, signed on February 13, the administration moved to end what it described as excessive deductions and structural distortions in oil and gas revenue management, mandating that all royalty oil, tax oil, profit oil, profit gas, and related government entitlements under production sharing contracts be paid directly into the Federation Account.

On the production side, upstream activities have rebounded significantly, with rig counts rising from eight in 2021 to 69 by late 2025, alongside more than eight billion dollars in Final Investment Decisions. Nigeria’s crude output has improved to approximately 1.6 million barrels per day, supported by the Project One Million Barrels Per Day initiative, which targets 2.5 million barrels per day by 2027.

The president has also sent further petroleum sector nominations to the Senate, including the proposed appointment of Senator Magnus Abe as Chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission — signalling the scale of the institutional reshaping underway across the sector.

Tinubu has described Adeola as “a great asset to the nation,” extolling his brilliance, integrity, and patriotism, as well as his contributions to job creation and investment across the Nigerian economy. The taskforce is expected to work in tandem with existing government agencies to accelerate value optimisation and attract fresh investment into the upstream and downstream segments of the industry.

Further details on the taskforce’s composition, mandate, and timeline are expected to be released by the presidency in due course.