14th September, 2023
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed his special adviser on revenue, Zacchaeus Adedeji the acting chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
Adedeji, a former commissioner of finance in Oyo State, will take charge of FIRS and replace Mohammed Nami whose tenure ends in December 2023 and is proceeding on retirement leave.
This is contained in a statement by Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, on Thursday in Abuja.
According to the statement, the president directed Nami, to proceed on a three-month pre-retirement leave with immediate effect in accordance with the provision of the Public Service Rule (PSR) 120243.
The leave which will lead to Nami’s eventual retirement as the boss of FIRS on Dec. 8.
‘’Adedeji is hereby appointed in acting capacity for a 90-day period before his subsequent confirmation as the substantive Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service for a term of four (4) years in the first instance,” the statement reads.
Adedeji Adedeji, a consummate financial expert with 15 years’ post-post-qualification experience in financial and general management, was before his appointment as a special adviser by Tinubu, the Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Council.
He is a qualified chartered accountant in strategy, accounting and financial management, financial analysis/reporting, internal controls, change management, and people management.
He is a First Class graduate of Management and Accounting from the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and later bagged a Master of Science degree in Accounting from the same university.
Adedeji who was also Commissioner for Finance in Oyo state between 2011-2015 has worked at the senior management level at the Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), a renowned American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America with branches across several countries.
He was General Accounting and Stewardship Manager between January 2004 to May 2006 where he led a cross-functional team to prepare and report financial statements regionally and globally through a consolidated data entry tool.
Mr. Adedeji’s culture of hard work and knack for professional excellence earned him a higher position at P&G with his elevation as the Finance Leader (Systems Applications and Products) Implementation Project. He spearheaded the day-to-day evaluation and implementation of SAP Modules and also led a 15-person finance team to develop the internal processes for the rollout of SAP West Africa in line with the project’s pre-requisites.
He later rose to the position of Corporate Finance Manager (West Africa) overseeing Treasury, Corporate/Affiliate Accounting, AP &Tax at Procter and Gamble between August 2007 to May 2011.
Mr. Adedeji, a Fellow of Chartered Accountants (FCA) is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and member, the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN).
He has attended training and participated in several executive programmes centred on leadership, capacity building and development, finance and accounting, policy and administration and stewardship in the United States of America, the Philippines, South Africa, Belgium and Switzerland.