Meet Anamekwe Nwabuoku, Nigeria’s New Accountant-General

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has announced the appointment of Anamekwe Nwabuoku to oversee the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

Mr Nwabuoku will supervise the office following the suspension of Ahmed Idris, the Accountant-General of the Federation who was arrested last week on alleged charges of corruption. The EFCC says Mr Idris stole at least N80 billion.

This was disclosed in a statement issued by Yunusa Abdullahi, special adviser, media and communications for the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed.

“Following the ongoing investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) for financial impropriety, the federal government has approved the appointment of Mr. Anamekwe Chukwunyere Nwabuoku to oversee the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF),” the statement read.

According to the statement, Mr Nwabuoku’s appointment was contained “in a letter dated 20th May, 2022 and signed by Aliyu Ahmed, Permanent Secretary (Finance), Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning”.

It said Mr Nwabuoku is expected to carry out his duty in strict compliance with extant rules and observe the highest sense of professionalism expected of an officer working at his level.

Mr Nwabuoku was born October 15, 1962. He hails from Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State.

Mr Nwabuoku holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accountancy from the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu, and Master of Science (M.Sc) in Financial Management from CommonWealth University, Belize.

Prior to his appointment, he was the director, inspectorate office of the AGF.

According to the statement, he started his civil service career with the Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS) and rose to the position of Principal Accountant between 1992 and 1995, and was deployed to the Office of the AGF, Abuja from 1996 to 2001 as Assistant Chief Accountant.

He served at the National Assembly’s office of the Senate president from 2001 to 2003 as special assistant to the Senate president on Public Affairs and his duties included Advisory Services to the Senate President on Media and other issues.

He assumed duty as Chief Accountant in the Ministry of Defence Headquarters, Abuja and served as Head of Accounts Administration.

Following his promotion to Assistant Director Accounts, he was placed in charge of Funds in the Ministry from 2009 to 2012.

He became a Deputy Director (Accounts) in 2012 and was deployed to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) as Supervisory Officer of Ecological Funds Accounts and other related matters.

Mr Nwabuoku was promoted to Director (Accounts) in 2017 and was posted to Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

He was the Director (Finance and Accounts) Ministry of Defence, Headquarters, Abuja from May 2019 to March, 2021.