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Retired CBN Board Members

Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (CON)  
Retired as Governor - Served in the CBN from 6/3/2009 To 6/2/2014

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi CON was born in Kano Northern Nigeria, on July 31, 1961. He obtained degrees in Economics and Islamic Law from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the International University of Africa, Khartoum. After teaching economics for two years at the Ahmadu Bello University, he started a banking career in 1985 with Icon Limited (Merchant Bankers) and later worked with the United Bank for Africa Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Plc. His banking career spanned various fields including issuing House activity, Financial Advisory Services and Credit marketing. However, it was in the field of Risk Management that he earned his professional reputation, having distinguished himself as the Chief Risk Officer in the two largest banks in the Country, UBA Plc and FBN Plc. He rose to the position of Group Managing Director/Chief Executive officer of First Bank Plc, the largest bank in the country in January, 2009 and was appointed the 10th Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in June, 2009.

Sanusi was appointed Governor in the middle of a global financial crisis with the Banking system on the verge of collapse due to large exposure to the stock market in the form of babble capital and excessive margin lending by some banks, as well as concentration of lending to other areas like petroleum marketing. Under his leadership, the Central Bank of Nigeria moved swiftly and boldly to implement far- reaching reforms in the Banking Industry aimed at addressing the root causes of the crises in poor corporate governance and risk management practices, management fraud, insider abuses and weak regulation supervision and enforcement.

A joint audit exercise carried out by the Central Bank and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) revealed that eight out of the twenty four deposit money banks in the country were in a grave situation leading to the removal of the management by the CBN and injection of bail-out funds to stabilize the institution. The first set of intervention occurred on August 14, 2009. Since that date the CBN has issued guidelines and implemented new regulation as policies. Among these are:

• Review of Prudential guidelines to encourage lending to the real sector
• Compulsory adoption of common year ended for financial reporting and enhanced reporting standards
• Compulsory retirement of CEO's who have spent upwards of 10 years in office
• Tenure limit of 12 years for non executive directors enforced in line with guideline issued in 2006
• Compulsory change of external auditors after ten years also as approved in 2006
• Abolition of Universal Banking and issuance of graduated authorization for licenses at international nature and regional levels
• Spearheading real sector reform advocacy with government for power, petroleum, agriculture and industrial policy.
• Enhanced coordination with regulatory agencies like Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Pension Commission (PENCOM) and NDIC to entrench overall system stability.
• Restoration of stability to the foreign exchange and money markets, and
• Increased focus on capacity building and process efficiency in the CBN.

Mr. Sanusi was awarded the National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan on July 22, 2010 and has been admitted into the fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN)

Mr. Sanusi came from a family with a very long tradition of public service. His father, Muhammad Lamido Sanusi was a technocrat and a career diplomat who served as the Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs after serving as Nigerian Ambassador to Canada, Belgium and China. He is also the grandson of the 11th Emir of Kano and Islamic Scholar, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi.

As a profilic writer, Mr. Sanusi has written and presented numerous papers at National and International conferences and seminars bordering on banking, politics, religion and society. Many of his papers have been published in academic/professional journals, books and newspapers around the world.

Sanusi is married and blessed with children.

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See Past and Present Governors of the CBN
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