Nigeria’s current Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele has been nominated for a second term in office by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Having been first appointed in 2014 by former president Goodluck Jonathan and retained as Buhari came to office in 2015, Emefiele’s stay at the West African country’s apex bank got renewal as a tenure elongation letter was sent to the Senate for ratification on Wednesday.
Emefiele’s stay in office for two terms will be the first since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999. If approved by the Senate, his five-year tenure will expire in 2024.
The 57-year-old banker was the Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc and was at the helm of affairs when the country slipped into its worst recession in 29 years.
As head of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Emefiele introduced various initiatives which ensured the stability of the naira.
He introduced a list of items for whose import foreign exchange was made unavailable and embraced investors and exporters window while directing banks to sell forex to customers over the counter for basic travel allowance (BTA), medical and education bills.
During his first stint, with help from the Bankers Committee, the CBN also announced financing programs for farmers and Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs).
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