Buhari names minister of state for national planning Zainab as acting finance minister for now

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has named the minister of state for budget and national planning Zainab Ahmed as the acting finance minister following his acceptance of Kemi Adeosun resignation yesterday.

Ms Adeosun, 51, finally tendered her resignation yesterday after it was revealed that the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) exemption certificate she was using was a forgery. Ms Adeosun was not entitled to an exemption from the one year mandatory service as she graduated before the age of 30 and since the scandal broke a few months ago, she has been under pressure to resign.

After accepting Ms Adeosun’s resignation, President Buhari appointed Ms Ahmed to oversee the ministry with immediate effect, pending the naming of a substantive finance minister. Ms Ahmed 55, is from Kaduna State and obtained a Bachelors of Science degree in accounting from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1981 and an MBA from Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye.

She started work in 1982 as an accountant in the Kaduna State Ministry of Finance and then later moved to Nigerian Telecommunication, rising to the position of deputy general manager in 1995. In March 2009, Ms Ahmed was appointed as the managing director of the Kaduna Investment Company and a member of the National Stakeholders Working Group.

In 2010, she was appointed to serve as the executive secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative before been appointed to her current position by President Buhari in 2015. She is a fellow of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, a member of the Nigerian Institute of Taxation and of the Nigerian Institute of Management.