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CBN confirms Emefiele’s resignation, Cardoso takes office as acting governor - PREMIUM TIMES
Mr Cardoso's nomination one week ago followed the exit of Folashodun Shonubi, whose resignation was not announced until Friday in a statement issued by the bank, having held the post since June.
Ronald Adamolekun
Olayemi Cardoso, the presidential nominee for the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) chief, took office Friday to function in an acting capacity, the apex bank said, ahead of a key legislative approval from the Senate, which resumes next week from its annual recess.
“This follows the resignation of Mr Godwin Emefiele as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),” a statement by the bank said Friday.
The statement also announced the official resignation of Folashodun Shonubi, who had been acting as the CBN governor since Mr Emefiele’s suspension by President Bola Tinubu in June.
“Similarly, the Deputy-Governors-Designate have also assumed duty, in acting capacities, sequel to the formal resignation of Mr. Folashodun Shonubi, Mrs Aishah Ahmad, Mr Edward Lametek Adamu, and Dr Kingsley Obiora as Deputy Governors of the CBN,” the statement signed by the bank’s spokesperson, Isa AbduMumin said, referring to the four deputies Presidenr Tinubu announced last week to assist the acting governor.
They are Emem Nnana Usoro, Muhammad Sani Abdullahi Dattijo, Philip Ikeazor, and Bala Bello, all of whom alongside Mr Cardoso are on an initial term of five years renewable thereafter.
The CBN said the acting governor and his deputies took oath of office during a ceremony in Abuja, “and have since settled down to the task of administering monetary and financial sector policies of the Federal Government.”
Mr Cardoso was the commissioner for economic planning and budget in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, when Mr Tinubu was governor.
An erstwhile chairman of Citibank Nigeria, he is a graduate of Management and Administrative Studies at Aston University, United Kingdom. Mr Cardoso also holds a master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, US and has spent more than thirty years of managerial experience, according to the CBN.
He is joining the bank at a uniquely difficult time when the naira, the local currency, is at its record low and annual inflation is at its highest level in more than 18 years, hitting 18.5 per cent in August.
Mr Emefiele, during whose nine-year tenure the naira saw its worst free fall, has been in detention over alleged financial misappropriation since his suspension from office in June.
On Thursday, the CBN deferred its monetary policy meeting, earlier scheduled for 25 & 26 September without announcing a new date.
