Meet ‘Zainab Ahmed’, the acting Finance Minister

Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed is a professional accountant who graduated in 1981 from Ahmadu Bello University. She did her National Youth Service, NYSC, in Kaduna State in 1981/1982 and served her country at Messrs. Egunjobi Suleiman & Co. Chartered Accountants, as an Audit Trainee.

She obtained her master’s degree from the Ogun state University, Ago Iwoye in 2004. She got her IJMB ‘A’ Levels from SBS/ABU Zaria in 1979 and her WASC ‘O’ Level in 1977 from Queen Amina College, Kaduna.

However, her quest to make a change and add value in the Nigeria economy catapulted her to the acting Finance minister after Kemi Adeosun resigned last four days ago.

But before then, Zainab was Nigeria’s Minister of State Budget and National Planning who has contributed immensely to the growth of the economy. She is still the minister of state Budget and National Planning.

Born on June 16, 1960 in Kaduna State, Zainab was employed in 1982 as an Accountant in the Ministry of Finance, Kaduna State.

After several promotions in the ministry, Zainab resigned in 1985 to join the Nigerian Telecommunication Ltd (NITEL).

In 2010, Zainab was appointed as the executive secretary and national coordinator of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

Adding to that, she has served as the managing director of the Kaduna Industrial and Finance Co. Ltd (KIFC), and also was appointed a member of the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG). She is a fellow of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Taxation and the Nigerian Institute of Management.

Her few major contributions:

She raised an alarm when remittances of independent revenue by generating agencies dropped and urged National Assembly to prevail on the lawmakers to make adequate remittances.

Zainab contributed towards the inauguration of committee for €54.5m support project. (Project aimed at contributing to the stabilisation of the North-east Nigeria through strengthening the resilience of Internally Displaced Persons, host communities, returning refugees and the local population affected by insurgency).