In a country long challenged by oil pollution and industrial inefficiencies, one engineer is demonstrating how scientific innovation can restore both the economy and the environment. Engr. Akeem Akintola, Assistant Chief Engineer at the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) under the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, has become one of the most respected figures driving Nigeria’s transition toward sustainable environmental engineering.
Akintola’s career began in 2006 with Shell Nigeria, where he served as a Chemical Engineer at the Shell Bonny Oil and Gas Terminal (BOGT), one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most critical crude export facilities. His responsibilities placed him at the heart of operations involving Safety-Critical Equipment such as valves, actuators, and process interlocks under the Lock-Open/Lock-Close (LO/LC) safety control system. This system governs the physical and procedural safeguards that ensure safe product transfer, prevent over-pressurisation, and protect personnel and infrastructure.
Within this highly regulated environment, Akintola led optimisation of the Basic Sediment and Water (BS&W) management process, a task requiring direct interface with the terminal’s lock-controlled process units and emergency shutdown systems. His innovations reduced BS&W levels by more than eighty per cent, cutting export losses and restoring full compliance with international crude specifications. These results not only saved Shell millions of dollars in potential penalties but also improved export uptime and reinforced Nigeria’s reputation for meeting global crude quality standards.
Colleagues recall his precision and discipline in managing safety interlocks, particularly during product diversions and system isolation procedures. “Engr. Akintola treated every valve as a critical control point,” said one senior control room supervisor. “His insistence on proper Lock-Open/Lock-Close tagging and verification created a safety culture that outlived his tenure.”
In 2018, Akintola brought this deep process-safety experience to ExxonMobil Nigeria’s Usari Field, where he designed and implemented enhanced flow-assurance and hydrate-prevention frameworks. His strategies increased production efficiency by sixty-three per cent, reduced downtime by nearly forty per cent, and improved field integrity through predictive maintenance practices that minimised the need for manual valve interventions.
These milestones shaped his transition into environmental biotechnology, where he now applies similar rigour to Nigeria’s sustainability agenda. Since joining NABDA in 2019, Akintola has led two of the country’s most ambitious national projects, the Nigerian Crude Oil DNA Fingerprinting and Harvestation Project and the National Bioremediation Products Development (BPD) Programme.
Through the DNA Fingerprinting initiative, Akintola pioneered molecular tagging and bio-analytical tracing technologies that created Nigeria’s first national crude DNA registry. This system allows regulators to trace any crude sample to its origin with ninety-seven per cent accuracy, cutting crude theft by sixty-two per cent in pilot zones and improving recovery efficiency at tank farms by twenty per cent.
Under the Bioremediation Programme, Akintola’s team developed indigenous bio-agents from local microbes and agricultural by-products. These eco-friendly formulations reduced the cost of remediating one hectare of oil-polluted land from ₦6.5 million to ₦2.1 million, a sixty-seven per cent cost reduction compared to imported products. Since 2020, over four hundred and twenty hectares of degraded land have been restored, with standardised cleanup protocols now implemented across all six geopolitical zones.
Beyond the laboratory, Akintola has worked closely with the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) to embed biotechnology-based cleanup standards into Nigeria’s regulatory frameworks. He has also mentored more than seventy young scientists and engineers, building national capacity in sustainable remediation, molecular tracing, and biosafety compliance.
Speaking at a recent workshop in Abuja, Akintola emphasised that sustainable solutions must come from within. “Nigeria already has the brains, the biology, and the raw materials to solve its environmental problems,” he said. “What we’re proving is that with structure and strategy, our solutions can be safer, faster, and cheaper.”
From Shell’s high-stakes control rooms to ExxonMobil’s offshore platforms and now NABDA’s biotechnology laboratories, Engr. Akeem Akintola’s career tells a consistent story of precision, innovation, and measurable national impact. His work across safety-critical systems and biotechnological remediation has saved millions, restored hundreds of hectares of land, and laid the groundwork for a cleaner and more resilient Nigeria.
