Presidency unveils Buhari’s economic team

The Presidency has disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari has an economic management team.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a telephone interview with our correspondent last light.

Akande was reacting to a media report that quoted some economic experts as urging the president to form his economic team.

According to him, the economic team of President Buhari has been put in place since the inauguration of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) last November.

Akande said the economic management team is headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

He listed the team’s key members as including the Chief of Staff to the President Alhaji Kyari, Deputy Chief of Staff Ade Ipaye, Minister of Budget and National Planning Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun, Minister of State for Petroleum Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of Trade and Investment Okechukwu Enelamah, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Godswin Emefiele and the Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO),

He said the composition of the team was not static as Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbe and Information Minister Lai Mohammed as well as relevant permanent secretaries have also been involved.

The vice president’s aide said the team had since been meeting and engaging representatives of the private sector.

He noted that unlike what obtained in the past, Buhari’s administration did not make anybody from the private sector a member of the economic management team.

“The economic management is a government affair. Unlike in the past when private sector individuals were made members of the economic management team. What this administration is doing is to constantly engage representatives of the private sector”, he said.

The vice president’s spokesman also exclusively told our correspondent that President Buhari had appointed Dr Oluyemi Dipeolu as his Special Adviser on Economic Matters.

He said the economic adviser, who was until his appointment in January a director in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), had been working with the economic management team.