PROFILE: Meet Buhari’s Economic Advisory Council Members

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday constituted an Economic Advisory Council (EAC).

Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said President Buhari appointed the following experts:

1. Prof. Doyin Salami – Chairman

2. Dr. Mohammed Sagagi – Vice-Chairman

3. Prof. Ode Ojowu – Member

4. Dr. Shehu Yahaya – Member

5. Dr. Iyabo Masha – Member

6. Prof. Chukwuma Soludo – Member

7. Mr. Bismark Rewane – Member

8. Dr. Mohammed Adaya Salisu – Secretary (Senior Special Assistant to the President, Development Policy)

Here is what you need to know about the appointees.

1. Doyin Salami
He is a senior lecturer at Lagos Business School where he leads sessions in the economic environment of business. He has also served as director of programs for five years until January 2005.

Mr. Salami is a doctoral degree graduate of Queen Mary College, University of London. His research interests include corporate long-term financial management; macroeconomic policy; corporate competitiveness and risk management; and characteristics of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

He served as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria and had been a member of the Federal Government’s Economic Management Team.

2. Bismarck J. Rewane
Mr Rewane is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited in Lagos.

He has more than thirty years of experience as an Economist, Banker & Financial Analyst. He is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Bankers of England and Wales and a Fellow of The Nigerian Institute of Bankers.

3. Chukwuma C. Soludo
The former CBN governor was born on 28th July 1960 and hails from Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. After his secondary school education, he proceeded to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he graduated with a first-class degree in Economics. He also undertook his postgraduate and doctorate degrees in Economics from the same University winning on both occasions, the prize for the best graduating student.

Mr Soludo, a professor, had cumulative four years of post-doctoral training in some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including: The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; University of Cambridge, UK, as Smuts Research Fellow and Fellow of the Wolfson College; the UN Economic Commission for Africa as a Post-Doctoral Fellow; University of Warwick as a Visiting Scholar and Visiting Research Scholar at Center for African Economies, University of Oxford (with funding by the Rhodes committee). He also attended over a dozen specialized courses and has had extensive research, teaching, and consultancy work in different areas of economics.

He has worked at the World Bank both as a short and long-term consultant since 1993 and also at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa.

4. Sheu Yahaya
Prior to his appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Development Bank of Nigeria Plc (DBN) in March 2017, Mr. Yahaya was the Bank’s Interim Managing Director.

He has an outstanding career in Academia and Development Finance, having held several management and executive roles, including Executive Director at the African Development Bank and member, Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Before joining the African Development Bank, he served as Deputy General Manager at Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM). He was a lecturer in Macroeconomics at the Department of Economics at the University of Sussex, UK and Head of Economics Department in Bayero University Kano, Nigeria.

5. Ode Ojowu
Ode Ojowu (born August 16, 1948) is a Nigerian economics professor and a former Chief Executive of the National Planning Commission. He was also Chief Economic Adviser to Former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 2004 and 2005.

He has held positions at the International Monetary Bank, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme. He was a professor of economics at the University of Jos.

In 2008 Ojowu was appointed the head of the governing council of the Benue State University.

6.Mohammed Sagagi
Mr Sagagi has a Certificate Course in Making Markets Work for the Poor from Springfield Center, Durham UK; PhD (Economics) from University of Warwick, Coventry, England (1985) with thesis on Commercial Policy and Industrialization in Nigeria; and M Sc. (Economics) from the University of Warwick, Coventry, England (1981).

He bagged his B Sc. in Economics with First Class Hons. from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria in 1977. He serves as Political Economy and Government Relations Adviser at a DFID-funded Programme on Skills Development and Entrepreneurship (Mafita) in Northern Nigeria.

He is an Economist and Development Consultant with a strong academic background and extensive private sector experience in Nigeria. His expertise and ability to carry out research, conduct diagnostic studies, design interventions as well as formulate practical development strategies.

According to his details, he has interests in political economy and sustainability of interventions- and play crucial roles in ensuring that Political Economy and sustainability issues are (a) integral to design and (b) part of the day-to-day management of all interventions. He has participated in a number of Federal, State and Local Governments of Nigeria reform programs.

7. Salisu Mohammed
Born in 1959 in Mamudo, Potiskum LGA, Yobe State, Mr. Salisu is married with 3 children. He bagged PhD in Economics from Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom (1990). His thesis was titled Oil Exports and the Nigerian Economy: An Econometric Study. He also bagged MSc degree in Economics from University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria in1986
and BSc (FIRST CLASS HONS) in Economics also from University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria, in 1982.

8. IYABO MASHA
Iyabo Masha is a global economist with a demonstrated history of working in central banking and financial markets, economic management, international lending, finance, and development. Strong focus on macroeconomic stabilization policy research and implementation.

She has worked with the International Monetary Fund since 2003 in Washington D.C. Metro Area. According to her, the assignments in more than 10 emerging markets (Asian and African countries) focus on comprehensive economic management including (i) policy reform advisory services and dialogue with governments (ii) financing and lending programs; (iii) analytic research and economic modeling and forecasting. Specifically, she helps design for national governments and central banks, implementable solutions specific to their circumstance.

She also ensures that key economic and financial policy reforms are focused on fiscal and debt sustainability; foreign reserve adequacy; improving the transmission mechanism of monetary policy; achieving depth, safety, and soundness in the financial sector; and managing capital fl

She worked at Central Bank of Nigeria’s Research Department between 1998 and 2003. She also worked with the World Bank between 1997 and 1998 as well as the IRIS Center, the University of Maryland at College Park as a consultant.

According to Premium Times, she is the immediate past IMF Representative for Sierra Leone.