Seun Onigbinde, Co-founder of BudgIT, a data-driven budget organisation has been appointed into the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as a Technical Adviser in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
This was confirmed by the Communication Associate of BudgIT, Shakir Akorede while speaking to journalists. Onigbinde also confirmed the appointment in a blog post.
“Friends, I have accepted to take up an advisory role underwritten by an international development agency for an initial period of six months. I see this as an adventure considering an accepted steep curve on public sector structure,” he wrote.
Onigbinde said that due to his new assigned role, he had taken a break from his role at BudgIT in order to focus more on his new responsibility.
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However, Akorede stated that Onigbinde’s temporary exit at BudgIT would not in any way affect the organisation as BudgIT was still dedicated to holding government accountable.
“It’s true, however, I need to point out that this has nothing to do with BudgIT. As you may recall, Seun has been absent from the company for some time. This is a situation that affects Seun as a person, nothing to do with BudgIT. This is in his personal capacity as a Nigerian.”
Onigbinde’s profile: Onigbinde had previously worked on several projects funded by MacArthur Foundation, Ford FounDFID, Open Society, OXFAM and Omidyar Network. In 2014, he made the list of finalists for the Young Business Leaders of the Year Award of CNBC Africa.
Onigbinde has also received numerous awards including the Ashoka Fellowship, Future Africa Awards, Bloomberg Media Journalism Fellowship, Quartz Africa 30 Innovators Award, Aspen New Voices Fellowship, Bloomberg Media Journalism Fellowship and an Open Knowledge Foundation ambassador for Nigeria.
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He is a graduate of Electrical/Electronics Engineering from the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and also has a degree in Executive Programme in Social Entrepreneurship from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.