Past Speaker - The Hon. Dr. Zainab Ahmed

Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed is the current Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget & National Planning, a position which combines
responsibilities she has held as Minister of Finance and as Minister of State for Budget & National Planning.

In her role, she has spearheaded several initiatives including the development and launch of the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives (SRGI), a cross-agency suite of interventions aimed at boosting domestic revenues; and the Reconstituted National Tax Policy Implementation Committee responsible for drafting the 2019 Finance Bill, which was passed into law in January 2020 (Finance Act 2020). She also launched Project Lighthouse, a data-driven artificial intelligence engine that supports an analytic view of revenue sources across the country, optimizes the collection of those revenues and helps officials ensure that major revenue loopholes are plugged.

Mrs. Ahmed is a seasoned Accountant with about 40 years of experience, including leadership roles in both the Public and Private Sectors. She graduated with a B.Sc. Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria and an MBA from Ogun State University, Nigeria.