Following the resignation of Nigeria’s immediate past minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, on Friday over forging of National Youth Service Corps, the President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Zainab Ahmed to oversee the ministry.
Mrs Ahmed is Nigeria’s Minister of State Budget and National Planning. She is expected to oversee the finance ministry until a substantive minister is appointed.
She was born on June 16, 1960, and was the immediate past executive secretary and national coordinator of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). She was also a member of the last two NEITI boards, having worked in the NEITI and global EITI.
An accountant by profession with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from ABU Zaria and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA), Mrs Ahmed, in her biography, says she has “extensive knowledge and diverse experience in public sector reform and management.”
Mrs Ahmed’s MBA was obtained in August 2004 from the Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye; while her BSc Accounting (1981) was from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; IJMB ‘A’ Levels (1979) from SBS/ABU Zaria; and WASC ‘O’ Level in 1977 from Queen Amina College, Kaduna.
Upon graduation, Mrs Ahmed was employed in 1982 as an Accountant II in the Main Accounts of Ministry of Finance in Kaduna State and was promoted to Accountant I in March 1984, but resigned in 1985 to join NITEL. Earlier, she had done her National Youth Service in Kaduna State in 1981/1982 where she was posted for primary assignment to Messrs. Egunjobi Suleiman & Co. Chartered Accountants, and served as an Audit Trainee.
She has served the Nigerian public in various high ranking positions, including as managing director of the Kaduna State of Nigeria’s investment company, and also the chief financial officer of the Nigeria mobile telecommunications company.
Apart from her stint at NEITI, between March 2009 and October 2010, she served as managing director of the Kaduna Industrial and Finance Co. Ltd (KIFC); acting chief finance officer at Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Ltd (MTEL) between July 2002 to March 2009. In the same vein, between March 1985 to June 2002, she also served at the Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL), where she was a senior officer (finance) and moved up the level of deputy general manager in charge of corporate treasury until 2002.
Her other professional qualifications include Fellow, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria; Fellow, Institute of Company and Commercial Accountants and Member, Chartered Institute of Management Taxation as well as Member, Nigerian Institute of Management.
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