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KEYNOTE INTERVIEW

MRS. ZAINAB SHAMSUNA AHMED
HONOURABLE MINISTER OF FINANCE, BUDGET AND NATIONAL PLANNING
Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed was appointed Minister of Finance, Budget & National Planning on
August 21, 2019. This position combines responsibilities she's held in the past as Minister of Finance
and also as Minister of State for Budget & National Planning.
Prior to this, Mrs. Ahmed was the Nigeria's Minister of Finance from September 14, 2018 to May 29,
2019. In this position, her responsibilities included the management and control of Nigeria's public
finance, with the specific functions of preparing annual estimates of revenue and expenditure for the
Federal Government; formulating fiscal policies; mobilizing domestic and external financial resources
through both internal and external financial institutions, for development purposes; monitoring
government revenue from oil and non-oil resources; supervising the insurance industry, the securities
and exchange regulator and other aspects of the financial markets; and managing sub-national public
finances in terms of the revenue allocation and distribution to the federating States and Local
Governments in Nigeria. She worked closely with leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria to
coordinate the fiscal and monetary policies of the Federal Government of Nigeria. In her capacity as
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ahmed spearheaded the development and launch of the Strategic Revenue
Growth Initiatives (SRGI), a cross-agency suite of interventions aimed at boosting revenues in
Nigeria. She also launched Project Lighthouse, a data-driven artificial intelligence engine that
supports the development of a more efficient revenue assessment methodology that analyses and
provides an analytic view of revenue sources across the country, optimizes the collection of those
revenues and ensures that major revenue loopholes are plugged and revenue collection is
dramatically improved. This was ratified by the Federal Executive Council on May 9, 2019.

Before this, Mrs. Ahmed was Nigeria's Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, from
November 11, 2015 to September 13, 2018 responsible for Budget Implementation, Budget Monitoring
& Evaluation, Donor Coordination, as well as managing the National Social Investment Program
targeted at enhancing social investments in the health and education. In this capacity, she was also
responsible for supporting Micro, Small, and Medium Size Enterprises. She was Chair of the Inter-
Ministerial Task Team, leading Coordination of the Humanitarian and Development Response in the
North East Nigeria.

Mrs. Zainab Ahmed has served as a member of the International Board of the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (EITI), and an incoming Co-Chair of the Open Governance Partnership (OGP).
Mrs. Ahmed has served in the Nigerian Public Service in various high-ranking positions, which include;
the Executive Secretary and National Coordinator of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative (NEITI), from 2010 to 2015. Under her leadership, NEITI attained “EITI Compliant Status” in
2011 and Nigeria received the “Best Implementing Country” award in 2013.
Mrs. Zainab Ahmed has also served the Country at the sub-national level. She was the Managing
Director of the Kaduna Investment Company Ltd from 2009 to 2010. She was also the Chief Finance
Officer of MTEL from 2002-2009, and rose to be the Deputy General Manager.
Mrs. Ahmed graduated with B.Sc. Accounting from the Prestigious Ahmadu Bello University Zaria,
Nigeria and studied for her MBA at the Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye, Nigeria. She is a fellow of
many professional bodies like the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) and
Institute of Company and Commercial Accountants (ICCA) among many others. She is also a member
of several professional bodies like Chartered Institute of Taxation (CITN)
and the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM).
As a seasoned Accountant, who has served in both the Public and Private Sectors, she brings to bear,
in her new role at Nigeria's Ministry of Finance, Budget & National Planning, her considerable
knowledge and experience in Financial Reporting, Public Financial Management, Budget
Formulation and Execution, Public Sector Reform, Natural Resource Accountability, National
Projects Management, as well as Macroeconomic, Monetary and Fiscal Policy Coordination.

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