 |
| Kemi Adeosun |
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari
appointed former investment banker and accountant Kemi Adeosun as finance
minister, more than seven months after he won the election that ushered in the
first democratic handover of power in Africa’s biggest economy.
Buhari, 72, selected Adeosun, who was most
recently finance commissioner of Ogun state in southwestern Nigeria for the
past four years, succeeding Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former World Bank managing
director. It makes her the second woman in a row to be in charge of
Africa’s biggest economy.
Adeosun faces an oil-dependent country
that is suffering from a fall in crude prices in the past year, an economy
growing at its slowest pace this decade, and increasing unease among
business-people and investors that currency restrictions imposed by the central
bank are choking activity.
Buhari’s government has said it intends to
spend money on infrastructure improvements in order to avoid recession. Next
year’s budget may range from 6 trillion to 7 trillion naira ($30-35 billion),
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo proposed at a ministerial meeting last week,
according to a person in attendance, who asked not to be identified because the
matter is private.
No comments:
Post a Comment