HAJIA IMAAM SULAIMAN IBRAHIM, Hon. Minister, Ministry of Women Affairs
Woman of the year
It was exactly one year ago last October since Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim assumed office as Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development. She was redeployed from the Ministry of Police Affairs where she had served for a year as Nigeria’s first Minister of State for Police Affairs. In her first cabinet assignment, Sulaiman-Ibrahim had earned recognition as a compassionate, efficient, and principled leader with grassroots credibility. Her profile rose further due to her unwavering commitment to reshaping gender and social welfare policies. This apparently motivated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to entrust her with the higher responsibility of Minister of Women Affairs.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim is a reform-minded technocrat and clear-headed policymaker who takes competence, equity, and hope to every office she occupies. Her tenure at the Women Affairs Ministry in just over one year has been marked by transparency and accountability in governance, inclusiveness and responsiveness to the needs of women, children, and the vulnerable and zero tolerance for corruption and a strong insistence on equity and rule of law.
Her approach has restored confidence in governance and delivered practical and notable relief to communities nationwide in the areas of economic empowerment, child protection, gender-based violence clean energy transition, women’s leadership advocacy, and skills acquisition. To empower women, she launched the Nigeria for Women Scale-Up Project, targeting 10 million women by 2027 with financial literacy, business training, and cooperative support. She established a Child Rights Act Review Committee to harmonize child protection laws and created a dedicated institution for Child Protection and Development.
Nigeria, under her watch, pledged global commitment to support 2 million at-risk children by 2030 while expanding evidence-based parenting programmes to reach 10 million families. The minister initiated a shift for one million households from firewood-based cooking to clean energy solutions, while championing gender-responsive climate action at COP29 in Azerbaijan. She also hosted high-level sessions on women’s leadership, financial inclusion, and child protection at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) in New York.
Under her leadership, the Ministry of Women Affairs partnered with WEMA Bank to train 500,000 women in vocational skills and entrepreneurship, beginning with 2,500 trainees in Kano State. Recently, she empowered women farmers in Benue and Kogi States with ₦1 million each under the WAVE Programme, and distributed food and non-food relief items to vulnerable families across the federation.
Imaam Sulaiman-Ibrahim who hails from Keffi in Nasarawa State, was born in Plateau State and raised in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
She attended Aruwa Nursery School and Jabi Primary School and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology at the University of Abuja. At 21, she acquired two Masters Degrees —an MA in Management and an MBA from Webster University, UK.
Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim worked as a senior sales director at Mary Kay Cosmetics, UK. The politician and businesswoman also served as a special adviser on Strategic Communication to the former minister of Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, and was appointed a member of the Nasarawa State Economic Advisory Council in 2019.
Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim was Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the anti-child-trafficking agency, for five months in 2021 before being transferred to the Federal National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons Office.
She was appointed Minister of State for Police Affairs in 2023 before her redeployment as Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development.
With her focus, energy, and unshakable commitment to service, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman Ibrahim is not only making history as Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development but is also leaving a legacy of empowerment, dignity, and hope for millions of Nigerian women and families.
The nomination of Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim as The Top10 Magazine’s Woman of the Year is in recognition of her transformative leadership as exemplified by the remarkable record of achievements in the Ministry of Women Affairs within a short time of her leadership which has earned her the reputation as one of the star appointees driving President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
