Central Bank of Nigeria Governors – Visualizing the Timeline of Leadership

The CBN Governors since Establishment

• The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was established in 1958. Roy Fenton was the first governor and only foreigner (Briton) to be the Governor.
• Abdulkadir Ahmed has the record number of days spent as CBN governor. He spent 11 years, 3 months and 2 days in office. Adamu Ciroma had the shortest tenure as CBN Governors, spending 643 days in office.

Former Workplaces of CBN Governors

• Prior to Paul Ogwuma’s appointment, CBN Governors were appointed from within, that is, they were staff or former staff (Ola Vincent returned from AfDB) of the bank before being appointed as the Governor.
• Paul Ogwuma was the first non-CBN staff to be appointed as CBN Governor. He was the former MD of Union Bank of Nigeria.
• Except for Chukwuma Soludo, other Governors after Ogwuma have been former commercial bank CEOs.
• Chief Sanusi retired from First Bank of Nigeria in 1998, and in May, 1999, he was brought out of retirement and appointed the Governor of the CBN.
• Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was the former MD of UBA while Godwin Emefiele was the former MD of Zenith Bank.

Working under Different Administrations

• It is not unusual for a CBN governor to serve under different governments or political administrations due to their tenure in office.
• Abdulkadir Ahmed served under 4 different governments; at least each CBN governor served under 2 different political administrations.
• The only CBN governor to serve under one government was Joseph Sanusi in 1999.
• Under Section 8(2) of the CBN Act, the CBN Governor has a renewable term of five years, not exceeding ten years in two terms

Age of CBN Governors

• Teaching is a favorite skill of CBN Governors – Aliyu Mai Bornu taught English; Clement Isong taught Economics and Vincent taught Economics part-time.
• Chukwuma Soludo, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Godwin Emefiele have also taught in their careers.
• Two of the CBN Governors have become State Governors after their retirement. Clement Nyong Isong of former Cross River State in 1979 and Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State in 2021.
• Being in the 40s is a likely age category to become the CBN governor. 8 out of the 11 governors took over in their 40s.
• In honor of their contributions to the Bank, both Mai Bornu and Isong appear on the 1,000 naira note.

CBN Governors Impersonated by Fraudsters

• Paul Ogwuma’s personality was impersonated in a bank fraud case in 1997.
• The impersonator pretended to be the CBN Governor at the time and defrauded investors to spend money on a phantom airport in Abuja.

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