Tinubu Asks Senate To Screen, Confirm Oyedele as Finance Minister

President Bola Tinubu has formally asked the Senate to screen and confirm Taiwo Oyedele as the Minister of State for Finance.

The request was conveyed in a letter addressed to the Senate and read during Tuesday’s plenary by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

If confirmed, Oyedele will replace Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite in the position.

Before his nomination, Oyedele, who hails from Ikaram in Akoko, Ondo State, served as the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, where he played a key role in reviewing Nigeria’s tax system.

The 50-year-old is an economist, accountant and public policy specialist with years of experience in financial and tax policy matters.

He obtained a Higher National Diploma in Accountancy and Finance from Yaba College of Technology and later earned a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.

Oyedele has also undertaken executive training programmes at the London School of Economics, Yale University, the Gordon Institute of Business Science and the Harvard Kennedy School.

He spent about 22 years at PwC after joining the firm in 2001, eventually becoming Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader.

In addition to his professional career, Oyedele serves as a professor at Babcock University in Ogun State and is also a visiting scholar at the Lagos Business School.

Meanwhile, Tinubu also asked the Senate to confirm Senator Magnus Abe as Chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission following the resignation of Gbenga Komolafe.

The President further nominated Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kaduna State, and Mr Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources, as non-executive commissioners. Their nominations have been referred to the Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream for consideration.