By Izunna Okafor, Awka
Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has appointed Mrs. Chiamaka Nnake as the new Secretary to the State Government (SSG), as part of the ongoing reconstitution of key offices following the commencement of his second term in office.
The appointment was disclosed in a statement issued on Monday, March 23, by the Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Christian Aburime, who said that the governor found Mrs. Nnake worthy of the position based on her professional background and contributions to public service in the state.
According to the statement, Mrs. Nnake, an MBA holder and Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), hails from Nawfia in Njikoka Local Government Area and has over thirteen years of experience spanning finance, strategy development and public sector planning. Mrs. Nnake most recently served as the State’s Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning under the just-dissolved Soludo’s first term, where she was responsible for coordinating the mobilization, planning and allocation of government resources to drive socio-economic development.
It was further disclosed further noted that during her time in government, she held key leadership roles in several strategic institutions, including the Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency, the State Internal Revenue Service Board and the Small Business Agency, while also serving as Chairman of Solution Fun City Limited. She was also described as the state’s Reform Champion for Ease of Doing Business and focal point for Social Investment Programmes, positions through which she promoted policies aimed at inclusive growth and economic expansion.
The statement added that before joining the state government, Mrs. Nnake worked as a Senior Strategy Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers Nigeria, where she handled multiple engagements across public and private sectors, including finance, agriculture, government reforms and development planning. During that period, she was part of the technical team involved in the development of the Anambra Vision 2070 document, a long-term development blueprint designed to guide the transformation of the state over the next fifty years, as well as the Combined Transition Plan that shaped the policy direction of the present administration.
According to Aburime, Mrs. Nnake also previously worked as a Business Analyst at IHS Towers, a telecommunications infrastructure company operating across several continents, and as an Equity Research Analyst at Meristem Securities Limited, where she covered companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Academically, the new SSG holds a Master of Business Administration from Lagos Business School, where she earned the Beta Gamma Sigma lifetime recognition for academic excellence, and graduated with First-Class honours in Accounting from Benson Idahosa University. She has also attended executive programmes at Harvard Kennedy School and is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Policy.
Mr. Aburime stated that the appointment takes immediate effect and forms part of the governor’s effort to assemble a competent and result-driven team for the new phase of his administration. He added that the office of the Secretary to the State Government remains central to policy coordination, implementation and overall administrative efficiency, especially as the government prepares to consolidate on its programmes in the second term.
The choice of Mrs. Nnake, who is 39 years old and married with children, as the new SSG reflects the administration’s continued preference for technocrats with strong professional and policy background, as Governor Soludo moves to reposition the machinery of government for what he has described as a higher gear of performance in his renewed mandate.
By her appointment, Mrs. Nnake will replace the outgoing SSG, Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu, who also served as a Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning (between March to June 2014) under former Governor Willie Obiano, after which he served as the Secretary to the State Government for barely 12 years (June 2014 to March 2026).
