By Dipo Olowookere
Last Friday, Mrs Kemi Adeosun resigned her appointment as Minister of Finance after admitting being in possession of a forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate.
After her exit, President Muhammadu Buhari drafted Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, to the Ministry of Finance.
On Monday, September 17, 2018, Mrs Ahmed resumed office and was welcomed by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, and other staff.
While addressing members of staff of the Ministry of Finance, Mrs Ahmed said the main task before her and the team is to get the nation’s economy back on the right track.
“These are very challenging times for our country and we are part of the economic team that has been charged with making sure there is economic stability in our country,” the Minister said.
She further said, “We have very serious revenue challenges and it is up to us to shore up the revenues of this country.”
According to her, “Mr President has a lot of confidence that we can do this. We are working for Mr President, but at the end of the day, we are working for the benefit of the citizens of our country.”
“There are a lot of sacrifices that I know that you have done, and we are going to push ourselves to still do more so that at the end of the day we will say Alhamdulillah– glory be to God,” she also stated.
Mrs Ahmed urged the team to cooperate with her so as to achieve success during her stay in the Ministry of Finance.
Observers would be watching to see how the new Finance Minister will achieve economic stability as well as policies she would formulate to restore confidence of investors.