Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank governor, has been named as the world Central Bank Governor of the Year by a global financial intelligence magazine, The Banker, a publication of the Financial Times of London. Mr. Sanusi is also the magazine’s African Central Bank governor of the year.
Brian Caplen, editor of the magazine, noted that few candidate names can generate an overall consensus on judging panels and yet, when it came to finding the best global Central Bank governor of the year, Mr Sanusi was chosen unanimously.
Mr Caplen stresses that Mr Sanusi embarked on a radical anti-corruption campaign aimed at saving 24 banks on the brink of collapse and pressed for the managers involved in the most blatant cases of corruption to be charged and, in the case of two senior bankers, convicted...
In a release signed by the Country Representative, Nigeria of The Banker Magazine, Kunle Ogedengbe, the magazine noted in its 2011 January Edition, which will also be distributed at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, that in the last 18 months that since Mr Sanusi has been in office, he has salvaged a crumbling Nigerian financial sector, including implementing reforms that have put Africa’s most promising market back on the map for investors globally.
Two months into his governorship, Mr Sanusi embarked on the bailout of Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank, Oceanic Bank and Finbank and dismissed their chief executive officers in a move designed to show that banking is no longer business as usual but institutions that must serve the economy as a whole. He also injected about N627 billion into nine banks to save them from imminent collapse.
Another reform of the banking sector introduced by Mr Sanusi has been to limit the tenure of bank chief executive officers to a maximum of 10 years. They will have to leave office at the end of their term regardless of their record. This policy has already led to change of leadership at UBA, Zenith and Skye banks.
Mr Caplen added that the reforms initiated by Mr Sanusi have been hailed as necessary to sanitise the banking industry and that observers have argued that, had these reforms not been initiated, Nigeria would have entered into another round of banking distress.
The Banker, a publication of Financial Times Newspaper which is regarded as the most influential newspaper in the world, is a global financial intelligence magazine published since 1926. It is the definitive publication that provides guide to bank ratings and analysis globally and the definitive reference on international banking for finance experts, governments, chief finance officers, CEOs, Central Bank governors, finance ministers, and other decision makers globally.
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