President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally forwarded the nominations of Taiwo Oyedele as Minister of State for Finance and former senator Magnus Abe as Chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to the Senate for screening and confirmation.
The letters were read during plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, marking the start of the legislative vetting process for the nominees.
Oyedele, who hails from Ikaram, Akoko in Ondo State, is set to replace Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite in the Finance Ministry. Before his nomination, he served as chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, leading initiatives to modernize Nigeria’s tax system and enhance revenue generation.
A seasoned economist and accountant, Oyedele spent 22 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, rising to the position of Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader. He holds a Higher National Diploma in Accountancy and Finance from Yaba College of Technology and a BSc in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University. He has also attended executive programmes at London School of Economics, Yale University, Harvard Kennedy School, and the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Oyedele currently lectures at Babcock University and serves as a visiting scholar at the Lagos Business School.
Separately, Tinubu has proposed former senator Magnus Abe as NUPRC Chairman following the resignation of Gbenga Komolafe. Additionally, Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, ex-chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kaduna State, and Mr Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources, have been nominated as non-executive commissioners.
Senate President Akpabio referred the letters to the Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream for vetting, signaling the start of formal legislative consideration.
The nominations reflect the administration’s focus on strengthening leadership in critical economic and regulatory sectors, as the government moves to consolidate reforms in finance and petroleum management.
