President Muhammadu Buhari has accepted the resignation of the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun.
The President accepted the resignation on Friday, a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said.
The President thanked the Minister for her services to the nation and wished her well in her future pursuits.
Read the full text of her resignation letter HERE.
In the letter to the President Buhari, the minister thanked him for the opportunity to serve and addressed the certificate forgery scandal which led to her resignation.
Meanwhile, President Buhari has approved that the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, should oversee the Ministry of Finance with effect from today.
Adeosun’s time as Finance Minister had its share of controversies and successes.
When she was first appointed, there were questions about her competency and profile, but they faded as time went on.
She courted controversy again when she suspended and subsequently fired Mr Munir Gwarzo as the Director-General of the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission with Gwarzo challenging her powers to suspend him.
The certificate scandal which erupted in July, however, did not go away with the Minister saying she resigned after finding out her NYSC exemption certificate was fake.
Apart from the controversies, Adeosun played a major role in the Federal Government’s economic plan.
During her time as Finance Minister, She set up “The Efficiency Unit”, cut thousands of ghost workers from the government’s payroll, led the whistleblower programme and championed the government’s tax amnesty programme – the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme.
Also, she contributed to the floating of several multibillion-dollar Eurobond offerings and led Nigeria’s discussions with multilateral institutions.
Mrs Adeosun is the second minister to resign from President Buhari’s cabinet.
Mrs Amina Mohammed had resigned as Minister of Environment in February 2017 to become the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.
