Member of the
Tubu people, Ali Lamine Zeine was born in 1965 in
Zinder and graduated from the Centre for Financial, Economic and Banking Studies in
Marseille and
Paris-I. He worked as a resident representative of the
African Development Bank in Chad, Ivory Coast and
Gabon. After serving as Director of the Cabinet of President
Mamadou Tandja, Zeine was appointed to the government as Minister of the Economy and Finance on 24 October 2003. In 2009, a newspaper editor, Boussada Ben Ali, alleged that Zeine had stolen money that was part of an oil contract between Niger and
China. Ben Ali was later arrested and sentenced to three months in prison for disseminating false information. Tandja was ousted in a
military coup on 18 February 2010 and his government was dissolved. As one of Tandja's key associates, Zeine was one of only three ministers who were not promptly released from
house arrest in the days after the coup. According to one of the junta leaders, Colonel
Djibrilla Hima Hamidou, the ministers "still under surveillance" had held "very sensitive portfolios" and therefore it was necessary "to ensure their security". The
MNSD called for the release of Zeine, Tandja, and the others. Zeine was appointed prime minister by the
Nigerien military junta on 8 August 2023, and appointed finance minister on 10 August 2023. His government included members of the
MODEN/FA-Lumana, which became
Independent from the 26 March 2025 on. ==References==