With the Presidential office comes the heavy responsibility to cater to a nation. This burden has been recognised as too large for one mind to bear. To mitigate this, the law gives Bola Tinubu, the Nigerian President, the right to select ministers with exceptional qualities to assist in governance.
Of these exceptional minds screened and confirmed by the Senate for the position of Federal Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy is Olawale Edun, former commissioner of finance for Lagos state.
The former state commissioner is poised to return to government as Minister of Finance with big challenges. His appointment at Finance will put an astute financial and banking expert with years of experience at the centre of the nation’s economic challenges.
Olawale has a background in merchant banking, corporate finance, economics and international finance at national and international levels. He graduated with an economics degree from the University of London before bagging his master’s degree in Economics from the University of Sussex, England. He also holds experience in the political sector as he served two terms as Commissioner of Finance for Lagos state.
In 1986 Wale joined the World Bank, where he worked on economic and financial packages for several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic and Trinidad, as well as Indonesia and India in the Far East.
It Is worth noting that he has over twenty-five years of experience in merchant banking, corporate finance, economics and international finance at national and international levels.
As Federal Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Olawale is tasked with coordinating the economic activities of other ministries, which in the days of Okonjo Iweala amounts to playing the prime minister. He is expected to ensure that policy decisions between the finance ministry and other ministries align with the financial costs and benefits of the nation.
Edun’s current position in Nigeria is crucial, considering the economic decline that the country currently grapples with. If there is anything, all eyes will be on him to make Nigeria’s economy more efficient; resuscitate and improve the Nigerian economy in its devastating state. He will be responsible for guiding Tinubu’s administration’s economic struggles.
President Tinubu has said subsidy removal was imperative because Subsidy can no longer justify its ever-increasing costs due to drying resources. His promise to Nigerian is that he would re-channel the funds into better investment in public infrastructure, education, healthcare and jobs that will materially improve the lives of millions.
With the appointment of Wale Edun as coordinating minister of Finance, the big question is: would Edun’s 25 years of experience help the current administration deliver on its promise to pull out Nigeria from its economic inefficiencies?
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