Meet Wale Edun, Revered Economist, Named Tinubu’s Finance Minister

On Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu allocated portfolios to the ministerial nominees who were recently approved for positions by the Senate.

Assigning the portfolios, Tinubu named a former commissioner of finance under his administration as governor of Lagos State, Wale Edun, who has a background in economics, international finance, merchant banking and corporate finance at the national and international levels, as the new Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy.

Others are former Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory; Ministers of Defence, Mohammed Badaru; Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong; Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani.

Also named are Minister of State, Environment and Ecological Management, Ishak Salaco; Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Bunmi Tunji.

In this report, The PUNCH highlights 10 things to know about the revered economist appointed to manage the economy in Tinubu’s administration below;

1. Wale Edun, a native of Ogun State, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of London and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Sussex, England.

2. Edun is a friend of the former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun and served with former Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo in Lagos State.

3. He is married to a Ghanaian, Amy Adwoa Edun (née Appiah).

4. He served as the Head of Treasury and Deputy Head of Corporate Finance at Chase Merchant Bank and he was in charge of the bank’s Treasury and Money Market activities he had major responsibility for Capital Market and Financial Advisory operations on behalf of the local subsidiaries and affiliates of major multinational companies.

5. He has 25 years of experience in merchant banking, corporate finance, economics and international finance at national and international levels.

6. He is the founder of Denham Management Limited, Chairman of Livewell Initiative, a health sector Non-Governmental Organisation and a Trustee of Sisters Unite for Children, an NGO focused on helping children in need.

7. He joined the World Bank/IFC in Washington DC, US through the elite Young Professionals programme in September 1986. At the World Bank, Edun 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.

8. He has been the Chairman of Chapel Hill Denham Group since March 2008. In 1989, he returned to Nigeria as Co-Founder and Executive Director of Stanbic IBTC Plc(formerly Investment Banking & Trust Company Limited).

9. In 1999, he was appointed as Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State, a position he held for two terms (1999-2007) under President Tinubu (then Lagos governor).

10. In October 2015, he was named as one of the ministerial nominees to be screened by the National Assembly under the former President, Buhari-led administration.