President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, named Wale Edun, a financial expert, as his special adviser on monetary policies, exactly six days after the suspension of Godwin Emefiele as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Edun, a former finance commissioner in the administration of Bola Tinubu as governor of Lagos State, is a financial expert with several years of experience in the banking sector and had played a prominent role in Presidential Transition Council (PTC).
He attended the University of London, where he bagged a bachelor’s degree in Economics and later a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Sussex, England.
Edun, who is co-founder and executive director of Stanbic IBTC plc (formerly Investment Banking & Trust Company Limited) in 1989, when returned to Nigeria, had also served as the chairman of Chapel Hill Denham Group.
He also worked with the World Bank/IFC in Washington DC, USA, where he prepared economic and financial packages for several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Indonesia, and India in the Far East.
The president also appointed Dele Alake, as his special adviser on special duties, communications and strategy.
Alake, a journalist, technocrat cum politician, also served as commissioner for information and strategy, from 1999 to 2007, when President Tinubu was governor of Lagos State.
Alake graduated from the University of Lagos, Akoka, with a bachelor of science (BSc) degree in Political Science in 1978. He also obtained a master’s degree in Mass Communications, from the same university, in 1981.
Alake contributed to the establishment of Lagos Television (LTV 8) and the sister station of his employers, the Lagos State Broadcasting Corporation. He later moved to the print media in 1985, when he joined the Concord Press, publishers of the Concord Group of Newspapers, where he rose to the position of editor of the newspaper.
He also served as the special adviser and media coordinator of the Campaign Organisation of the late MKO Abiola in 1993.
Zacchaeus Adedeji, the new special adviser on revenue to the president, was a former commissioner of finance in Oyo State between 2011 and 2015.
Read also: Meet Wale Edun, special adviser to the president on monetary policy
Adedeji, who holds a first-class degree in Accounting from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and a certificate in Comparative Tax Policy and Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, is an astute accountant, corporate tax and public finance development expert, with over 15 years of experience in corporate accounting, public service administration and public service advisory.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari had in March 2021, appointed him as the executive secretary, National Sugar Development Council (NSDC).
Also named as special adviser to the president on energy, is Olu Verheijen.
Verheijen, an energy expert will be bringing two decades of transactional, project development, investment and policy experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors, to bear on the Tinubu government’s energy policies.
She holds a BA (Magna Cum Laude) from Long Island University and a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Until her appointment, she was the managing director at Latimer Energy.
She is also an advisory council member of the US Millennium Challenge Corporation and an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Energy for Growth Hub.
She is also the founder of the BFA Foundation, which funds scholarships for women and other disadvantaged groups to expand their career advancement opportunities in high-growth sectors, including the energy sector. Her past roles include a Deal Lead and member of the governing board of an upstream JV at Shell and partner and investment committee chair at an early-stage investment firm with a pan-African portfolio of distributed renewables companies.
Verheijen’s deal experience includes leading project development and negotiating the financing arrangements for multibillion-dollar gas infrastructure projects, divestment of energy and aviation assets as well as investments in distributed renewable companies.
She is also said to have provided support to the Nigerian government in formulating policies and reforms that promote investment in gas infrastructure for domestic markets and was Shell’s finance lead on the negotiations for Nigeria’s first World Bank Partial Risk (PRG) Guarantee to improve bankability of gas supply to state-owned power plants.
Abiodun Oladunjoye, the director of information, State House, in a statement, on Thursday, also named Yau Darazo, as special adviser, political and intergovernmental affairs.
The president also approved the appointment of Nuhu Ribadu, a former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as special adviser on security.
Tinubu also named Salma Anas, as his special adviser on health.
Salma, trained medical personnel, was until her current appointment, director, in charge of Family Health Services, at the Federal Ministry of Health. She has over 25 years of experience in health sector development, especially in policy formulation, strategic development, resource mobilisation, and implementation of various health programmes at international, regional and national levels.
Her technical skills and expertise cut across health systems strengthening with particular reference to PHC, with a passion for improving access to quality Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child Adolescent, and Elderly Health plus Nutrition (RMNCAEH+N) services, including sexual and reproductive rights, as well as gender-based violence.
