Kemi Adeosun

A London Accountant

Adeosun was born and raised in London, where she studied and spent most of her early career. Court records describe her as having graduated in 1989 at the age of 22 and lived in Britain until 2003. She qualified as a chartered accountant and worked in audit and finance in the United Kingdom before moving to Nigeria in 2003, then built a career in investment and asset management. The exact employers and dates of her early career could not be confirmed from more than one source, so they are not listed here.

Ogun State Commissioner for Finance

From 2011 to 2015 she was Ogun State’s Commissioner for Finance, which brought her into public service for the first time. That record led to her appointment as Minister of Finance in November 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari. During her tenure she was an ex-officio governor at the African Development Bank and the World Bank.

Minister of Finance, 2015 to 2018

She served as finance minister for almost three years. In August 2018, the government named her chairman of the board of the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company, at a time when the NYSC allegation had already been published. She was also elected chairperson of the African Export-Import Bank’s board in 2018. In an interview in January 2026, she said every minister in her time knew the fuel subsidy was “killing” the country, that fuel tracking had shown smuggling to neighbouring countries, and that spending on the subsidy came at the cost of roads, education and health. These are her views of the period, not findings from an audit.

The NYSC Case

On July 7, 2018, a newspaper alleged that she had obtained an exemption certificate from the National Youth Service Corps by improper means. On July 9, the NYSC said she had applied for an exemption and that verification was still going on. She resigned on September 14, 2018, in a letter to the President. She has said she resigned because she intended to sue the federal government and “you can’t be suing the government and staying in the government,” and that powerful enemies used the episode to force her out; in the January 2026 interview she did not say whether the certificate was genuine.

On July 7, 2021, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, declared that she did not need the NYSC discharge certificate to take a ministerial appointment and granted all the reliefs she asked for. The court reasoned that she was born in Britain in 1967, graduated at 22 when she was not a Nigerian citizen, and was past the age for the scheme when she returned, and that the constitution sets no NYSC requirement for ministers. The reports reviewed say the court did not rule on whether the certificate was forged, because that was not the question before it, so the authenticity of the certificate was not decided.

After Government

She launched the Dash Me Foundation on June 13, 2021, in Lagos, an online thrift-for-charity initiative that raises funds for vulnerable people through grassroots charities. In May 2026, speaking at an event in Lagos marking Workers’ Day, she said she had run nine businesses and that six had failed, and gave four tests for any business idea: the market, the numbers, the timing and the team. “Moses needed Aaron. Every founder needs a team,” she said.

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