Nigeria Finance minister resigns over forgery claims in NYS scheme

President Muhammadu Buhari has accepted the resignation of Nigeria Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun.

She stepped down over allegations of using a forged certificate to avoid participation in the country’s mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps.

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“I have, today become privy to the findings of the investigation into the allegation made in an online medium that the Certificate of Exemption from the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) that I had presented was not genuine,” she said in her statement.

“This has come as a shock to me and i believe that in line with the administration’s focus on integrity, I must do the honorable thing and resign,” she added.

Adeosun, a top cabinet member and a former investment banker, promoted the government’s policy to boost growth, following a recent recession.

She said in a statement that she believed she was an exempt from the service scheme, but felt she was bound to resign because of the administration’s “focus on integrity”.

The allegations of the forged exemption certificate surfaced over the recent months in the Nigerian media. Initially, she did not comment prompting criticism from her opponents.

On Friday, she said that she was exempted from the scheme because she had passed the required minimum age. She had moved back to Nigeria from Britain, where she was born.

Adeosun was appointed by president Buhari to manage the finances of Africa’s biggest economy in November 2015. This was in a bid to improve tax collection and shore up the country’s finances by cracking down on mismanagement by government agencies.

She also oversaw the strategy of restructuring Nigeria’s debt portfolio into longer term maturities by borrowing more offshore and less at home to lower costs.