TAND 2019: AHMED RUFAI MOHAMMED WINS TREK AFRICA AWARDS
Alhaji Ahmed Rufai Mohammed
-HIS INTIMIDATING PROFILE AS A CORPORATE GOOD GOVERNANCE TITAN
Alhaji Ahmed Rufai Mohammed was born on 31st December, 1951 in the great city of Kano, Northern Nigeria. He attended Jarkasa Primary School and obtained his First School Leaving Certificate in 1966. He proceeded to the famous post secondary school in kano Sate, Birnin Kudu Government College in 1967 and obtained his West African School Certificate in 1971. He was admitted into the Abdullahi Bayero College, a kano campus of the Ahmadu Bello University, in 1972 and on successful completion was admitted to the Ahmadu Bello University , Zaria in 1973 where he graduated with Honours in Business Administration in 1976. Immediately thereafter, he undertook his National Youth Service in 1976/77 and was among the first set of Corpers who served in the freshly created Ogun State when new States were created by the Military in 1976. He served diligently as a pioneer staff/ corp member of the Ogun state Ministry of Trade, industry and Commerce and was given Special Recognition by the then Permanent Secretary and staff for his dutiful performance.
Alhaji Mohammed joined the Kano State Civil service in 1977 immediately after his National Service and was appointed as Administrative Officer II in the State Cabinet Office and posted in that capacity to the Ministry of Finance where he served as Adminstrative Officer and Secretary, State Housing Loans Board.
He felt dissatisfied with the unnecessary bureaucracy which accompanied working in a government ministry and promptly applied, was interviewed and employed in the newly created kano State Investment and Properties Ltd ( KSIPL) , a State government owned development finance company, where he felt he could best apply his acquired knowledge and experience during his service year. He began his career in development finance and investment promotion and supervision at the KSIPL as Assistant Investment Executive in 1977 and rose through the ranks to become Investment Executive, Senior Investment Executive , Principal Investment Executive and the Company’s Finance Controller in 1984. In between his career at the KSIPL , he had also attended the Manchester Business School in 1978 where he obtained a post graduate certificate in Development Banking and Finance and, on graduation , was assigned the responsibility of being the Chief Accountant/ Company Secretary of the Kano Textile Printers Ltd , a subsidiary of the KSIPL, between 1981 and 1984. In 1984 he was appointed the Finance Controller of the Development Finance Company where he served until 1987 when he resigned and joined a not- for- profit organisation , Kano Foundation, established by the Citizens of the joint states of Kano and Jigawa, to promote education and entrepreneurship as the Foundation’s pioneer Director of Finance and Investment.
In 1991 , Alhaji Mohammed resigned from Kano Foundation to join the Federal public service and applied for the post of Assistant General Manager at the National Provident Fund at the time of its partial commercialisation by the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, the pre cursor to the present Bureau of Public Enterprise. He was appointed in July 1991 as Assistant General Manager and rose to the position of General Manager in 1993 at the time of the Funds conversion to NSITF. In August 2002, Alh Mohammed was appointed Managing Director/ CEO of the NSITF by President Obasanjo and he served in that position until he voluntarily retired in 2007 after having created the Trustfund Pensions Ltd and became its pioneer Chairman and supervised the drafting of the Employee Compensation Bill which was eventually assented to by President Shehu ‘Yar’Adua as the Employee Compensation Act and is currently being implemented by the NSITF Management Board.
Alh. Mohammed has garnered substantial knowledge and experience in corporate administration and governance by working and serving on the Board of Directors of many public and private companies.
At the early stage of his career and being a staff of an investment holding company, he served on the Board of Kano Sate Oil and Allied Products Limited, at that time the largest African edible oil producing company , the Board of Kano Textile Printers as Ag CEO, the Board of Kapital Insurance Ltd , Board of Challawa Cotton Ginnery Ltd and the Board of the Kano Modern Abattoir Ltd.
Later in his career, Alh. Mohammed served on many Board of Directors including the Boards of Afribank Plc, First Securities Discount House Ltd, International Merchant bank Ltd, Nigeria German Chemicals Plc , Profund Securities Ltd and Standard Trust Bank Ltd which merged to become the present United Bank for Africa, UBA.
Alh. Mohammed is currently a Group Director at the Royal Exchange Plc, Chairman , Northbidge MICROFINANCE bank Ltd, Chairman , HARUSONS oil and Gas Ltd and Executive Vice Chairman, NORTHBRIDGE Investment and Trust Ltd, a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Alh. Mohammed is also an entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was a co-founder and Council member of the only private girls boarding STEM school in Kano, the Queens Science Academy , which has proudly graduated numerous students who have eventually went on to graduate from reputable universities as medical doctors, engineers, pharmacists and architects. A lot of these graduates presently serve in Federal Medical Centres, State hospitals and other well established private enterprises. He is also a founder and financier of the Amina Primary and Islamic School , Kano which teaches children and adult western and Islamic education to over 300 students at any one time.
Alh. Rufai Mohammed is widely travelled and has attended several conferences and seminars in development finance, banking, investment, insurance and social security both in Nigeria and in many countries in Africa and Europe. He served as a Committee member of the International Social Security Association ( ISSA ) based in Geneva and was a resource person to its several training programs on investment in Social Security institutions in West, East, Central and South Africa. He was also a member of the Federal Government delegation at many conferences of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at Geneva and at the African Ministers of Labour Forum in many countries in Africa.
Alh. Mohammed had served in many other national capacities as a member of the Cross Debt Reconciliation Committee of the TCPC in 1989, a member of Vision 20:2020 and a member of the Federal Government Committee on Infrastructure Development.
Alh Mohammed has received many awards and recognitions both locally and abroad and is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration, Fellow Society of Risk Managers Association of Nigeria and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Alh. Rufai Mohammed has served in many capacities as a member and Fellow of the Institute of Directors Nigeria , the apex organisation for leadership training in the country first as the Chairman of IODN Abuja branch where he served meritoriously and as result was elected into the Governing Council of the Institute in 2012 after his tenure of 2 years. In 2013 he was elected the Institute’s Second Vice President and in 2015 , the First Vice President. He served as the chairman of the Institute’s Finance and General Purpose Committee for two years and also as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Centre for Corporate Governance , a tripartite body of IOD, CAC and SEC charged with corporate governance advocacy. He became the 15th President of the Institute of Directors in 2017 and served his term of two years successfully and meritoriously and handed over to a newly elected President in July , 2019.
Alh. Rufai Mohammed’s tenure as the President of IOD Nigeria was extremely eventful and crowned with numerous successes. He was dubbed an unusual and great achiever who transformed the Institute by providing it one of the most memorable and highly successful leadership. He is a proud advocate and achiever of the practice of best corporate governance.
Alh Rufai Mohammed is happily married to Hajiya Hadiza and they are blessed with three adult girls and three adult boys all of whom are well and thoroughly educated and now in various fields of endeavour. They are also blessed with four grand children.
Alhaji Ahmed Rufai Mohammed Wins Trek Africa Newspaper’s Lifetime Achievement in Corporate Good Governance and Leadership at the 6th edition, Trek Africa National Discourse and Awards held at Golden Gate, Ikoyi, Lagos.
