Ahmed, until her appointment was the junior Minister in charge of Budget and National Planning ministry.
Adeosun had resigned on Friday following the outcome of an investigation into the allegation against her over the falsification of the certificate of exemption from National Youth Service Corp (NYSC).
The certificate was later discovered not to be genuine.
Speaking while meeting with officials of the finance ministry on Monday, Ahmed described the task ahead of her in her new place of work as challenging.
“These are very challenging times for our country. It means we are part of the economic team that has been charged with making sure there is economic stability in our country.
“We have very serious revenue challenges and it is up to us to shore up the revenues of this country.
“Mr President has a lot of confidence that we can do this very well together. We are working for Mr President, but at the end of the day we are working for the benefit of the citizens of our country.
“There are a lot of sacrifices that I know that you have done, and we are going to push ourselves to still do more so that at the end of the day we will say Alhamdulillah– glory be to God!” she said.
She urged the ministry staff and officials to brace up for the challenges ahead, noting that all hands must be on deck for her to succeed in her assignment.
“The finance ministry has overtime been known to have very skilled personnel; from interacting with some of you, I know that there is a lot of skill set within the ministry and that I am in good hands.
“I plan to work very closely with the whole of the directors, most especially with the Permanent Secretary.
“I want to declare that today the Permanent Secretary is my new next-of-kin. What that means is that I am going to work hand-in-glove with him, and I expect everybody to do the same thing.
“There are some things I know about finance, but there is a lot that I don’t know, and the knowledge resides in you.”
“I have been told that you are preparing handing-over notes, or more correctly briefing notes; I will be engaging each of you on a one-on-one basis with the Permanent Secretary so that I can have a complete view of what is in the ministry,” she added.
It can be recalled that Mrs. Zainab Ahmed apart from being the Minister of State Budget and National Planning, have held several critical positions in the past including being the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
She was also the Managing Director of Kaduna Investment Company and member of the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG).
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