34 Facts About Shamsuddeen Usman

Shamsuddeen Usman was the Finance Minister of Nigeria between June 2007 and January 2009 and served as the Minister of National Planning from January 2009 to September 2013.

Shamsuddeen Usman represented Nigeria as a Governor on the Governing Boards of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Shamsuddeen Usman was a Member of the Federal Executive Council, National Economic Council and the National Council on privatization.

Shamsuddeen Usman was the first Nigerian Minister to publicly declare his assets before assuming office as a public officer, an act considered as a sign of accountability and transparency in a country noted for its high levels of corruption.

Shamsuddeen Usman later won a National scholarship to study for his MSc.

Shamsuddeen Usman's PhD was on "Tax Incentives and Investment in the Nigerian Oil Industry".

From 1974 to 1976, Usman worked as the Planning Officer for the Kano State Ministry of Economic Planning.

Shamsuddeen Usman taught Economic Analysis and Public Finance in Ahmadu Bello University, Bayero University Kano and University of Jos between 1976 and 1981.

Shamsuddeen Usman was then appointed the General manager of NAL Merchant Bank.

From 1989 to 1991 Shamsuddeen Usman served as the pioneer Director General of The Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, now the Bureau of Public Enterprises.

Shamsuddeen Usman was responsible for the Phase I of the programme with the mandate to reform public enterprises, as an integral and critical component of the International Monetary Fund-led Structural Adjustment Programme, which was started in 1986.

Shamsuddeen Usman was head-hunted to become the executive director of United Bank for Africa in charge of the International and Investments Sector in 1992.

Shamsuddeen Usman was a member of the Committee on Vision 2010.

Shamsuddeen Usman was responsible for heading Project Eagles, the CBN's reform programme, responsible for converting the organisation into one of the most efficient, effective and goal-focused institutions in Nigeria.

Shamsuddeen Usman has served as the Chairman of the Abuja Stock Exchange, Nigerian Export-Import Bank and Financial Institutions Training Centre.

Shamsuddeen Usman is a fellow of the Nigerian Economic Society and has served as President of the Society between 1986 and 1987.

Shamsuddeen Usman was a board member of the African Economic Research Consortium and the African Export-Import Bank.

Shamsuddeen Usman was appointed as the Minister of Finance of Nigeria from May 2007 to January 2009.

In times leading to the presentation of the government's budget by the President to the National Assembly, Shamsuddeen Usman did not enjoy a cordial relationship with a few Members of the Senate and House of Assembly as both, on all occasions during the preparation of the budget, were pushing for increased government spending against Shamsuddeen Usman's wishes, particularly as the Nation was suffering from dwindling oil revenues.

Shamsuddeen Usman claimed the reason for this is that the Economy of Nigeria lacked the capacity to take this increased spending, given its deflated revenue base and in order to control inflation and curtail corruption and improper implementation as in the Power Sector during the Obasanjo administration; this should be avoided.

Shamsuddeen Usman blamed the low level of execution of the 2008 budget partly to the delays caused by the National Assembly in approving the budget, a statement that the Members of the National Assembly were very unhappy with.

In preparing the 2007,2008 and 2009 budgets, Shamsuddeen Usman introduced a system of budgeting based on Medium Term Development Plans as opposed to misguided annual budgeting which showed coherency with respect to national development plans in succeeding years, as was done in the past.

Shamsuddeen Usman was responsible for supervising the Monitoring and Implementation of these National Development Plans, the European Development Fund Country Strategy Paper and the National Indicative Programme.

Shamsuddeen Usman was mentioned by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as one of the major individuals that made a tremendous impact in Nigerian economy and their contributions at that moment would help alleviate the current economic recession.

Shamsuddeen Usman was a member of the Presidential Steering Committee on the global financial crisis.

In 2015, Shamsuddeen Usman was appointed Chairman of Union Trustees Management Services Ltd and Songhai Health Trust Ltd.

Shamsuddeen Usman expanded his involvement in the education sector in 2017 when he became Chairman of Greensprings Educational Services Ltd, followed by his role as Chairman of Rainbow Educational Services Ltd in 2018.

However, Shamsuddeen Usman had identified that oil price volatility posed very high risks to growth in Nigeria's oil-dependent economy, and as such pushed for the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund, which will serve as a long-term saving fund for future generations and as a development fund for socio-economic projects It was planned to be similar to the Government Pension Fund of Norway.

Shamsuddeen Usman constituted a Presidential Technical Committee on the Establishment of the Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Fund, which submitted its report to the National Economic Council and the President.

However, Shamsuddeen Usman's re-nomination was not viewed favorably by members of the Kano State PDP chapter, as they perceived Shamsuddeen Usman to be a technocrat and not a politician, and as such the People's Democratic Party stakeholders in Kano State.

However, on the same morning of the newspaper reports, Shamsuddeen Usman was the first to be screened by the Senate where he answered a variety of questions on the economy, and answered questions on his performance as a Minister of Finance and National Planning.

Shamsuddeen Usman is the chairman and one of the founding members of the Kano Peace and Development Initiative, a group of concerned indigenes of Kano State driven to rebuild peace and the economic well being of Kano State, especially after the religious conflict in 2004.

Shamsuddeen Usman started Gidauniyar Alheri, an NGO in the Garangamawa area of Kano city that provides human resource development training to youths and carries out other charitable activities in the state.

Shamsuddeen Usman is the chairman and founding member of the Kano-Jigawa professional forum.