Profile of Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed

Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, who was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari last week as Supervising Minister of Finance following the resignation of Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, was the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning before her reassignment. Before she became a minister in 2015, she was Executive Secretary and National Coordinator of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) for five years.

She was born on June 16, 1960 in Kaduna State. She graduated from Queen Amina College, Kaduna, in 1977; obtained IJMB ‘A’ Level at the School of Basic Studies, ABU, Zaria in 1979; obtained a BSc Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in 1981 and also obtained an MBA from Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State in August 2004.

She did her NYSC primary assignment at Egunjobi, Suleiman & Co. Firm of Chartered Accountants in Kaduna in 1981-82.

She went to work as Accountant II in the Main Accounts Division of the Kaduna State Ministry of Finance in 1982, and was promoted to Accountant I in March 1984. She resigned in 1985 and went to work as Senior Officer (Finance) at Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL) in March 1985. She was at NITEL until 2009. She rose to become Deputy General Manager, Corporate Treasury in 2002.

She moved to Nigeria Mobile Telecommunications (MTEL) and was appointed Acting Chief Finance Officer in November 2005 and later Chief Finance Officer of MTEL.

In 2009, she was appointed Managing Director of Kaduna Industrial and Finance Co. Ltd (KIFC). In 2010 she became Executive Secretary and National Coordinator of Nigeria EITI and was also a member of the Nigeria EITI board. She is a member of the international board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) representing 11 Anglophone and Lusaphone countries. She is also the Government Co-Chair of the Open Governance Partnership (OGP). As Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, she was responsible for Budget implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Donor Coordination and Managing the National Social Investment Program (NSIP). She is also the Chair of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team, leading coordination of the Humanitarian Response of the North East Crises in Nigeria. The objective of the Team is to provide assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

She is a Fellow, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN); Fellow, Institute of Company and Commercial Accountants (ICCA); Member, Nigerian Institute of Management Taxation (CITN) and Member, Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM).

On September 14, 2018, President Buhari appointed Mrs. Zainab Ahmed as the Supervising Minister of Finance.