Buhari re-appoints Godwin Emefiele for five-year term CBN chairman in a surprise move

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has re-appointed Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele for a second five-year term in a surprise development that will see him occupy the post until 2024.

Contrary to expectations that the president would let go of Mr Emefiele and replace him with either deputy governor Aishah Ahmed, former Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria chairman Ahmed Kuru or ex-finance minister Mansur Muhtar, President Buhari has surprisingly retained the incumbent. Mr Emefiele, 57, was first appointed in 2014 by former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan and was retained when President Buhari assumed office in 2015.

With his tenure ending, President Buhari opted to act swiftly and reappoint Mr Emefiele, sending a letter conforming his tenure renewal to the senate. Under the provisions of Nigeria's CBN Act, the senate must confirm the nomination of the bank's governor before his tenure can take effect.

This is the first time since 1999, when Nigeria returned to democracy, that anyone would be nominated to serve for two terms as CBN governor. Before assuming the office of the CBN governor, Mr Emefiele was the group managing director of Zenith Bank.

In 2015 when global oil prices began to decline, there had been calls for the devaluation of the naira but President Buhari opposed the idea. As CBN governor, Emefiele introduced various interventions to ensure that the naira was kept stable, including introducing a list of items for whom foreign exchange was no longer available to discourage imports.

That initial list of 41 items now contains 43 of them and it is believed that policies like this, are what lead President Buhari to retain him. Mr Emefiele also introduced an investors and exporters window while directing banks to sell foreign exchange to customers over the counter for basic travel allowance, medical and education bills.

Ms Ahmed, 42, had been the favourite to replace Mr Emefiele as she had been rapidly promoted through the ranks, which was seen as her being groomed to become CBN chairman. Mr Mansur for his part is highly qualified as he currently a vice president at the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank and also served as executive director on the board of the World Bank, as co-chairman of the United Nations Inter-Governmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Finance and executive director at the African Development Bank.