Mallam Lamido Aminu Sanusi

Central Bank Governor

Date of Birth: 1961
Place of Birth: Kano

Education: MA, economics, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1984; BA, Sharia and Islamic studies, International University of Africa, Khartoum, 1991-97

Career: In the mid-1980s, Sanusi worked with ICON Limited, a merchant bank, and became its area manager in Kano before leaving for studies in Sudan. Upon his return, he was recruited by United Bank for Africa and in May 1997, appointed a Principal Manager in its Risk Management Division, and made Assistant General Manager in 1998.
Sanusi's proposal that a risk department be established had him appointed head of the department after it was formed. His reputation in risk management was boosted when he transformed what was a credit risk division into an enterprise risk management department. In 2005, he joined First Bank as its Executive Director, Risk Management and Control, and in January, became Chief Executive.

Commentary: Urbane and intellectual, Nigeria's new Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has combined a long career in commercial banking with studies for a degree in Islamic law and his duties as a Prince in Kano's royal house. His grandfather, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi, was the Eleventh Emir of Kano.

Sanusi has quickly shaken up the financial sector with calls for stricter regulation, more transparency and accountability. He is also willing to allow more foreign banks to take controlling stakes in Nigerian institutions. The United States' Citibank's highly profitable stake in Citi Nigeria is one of the few locally incorporated financial institutions in which foreign investors have a majority stake.

In contrast to his predecessor, Charles C. Soludo, who was comfortable with looser regulation and close to several senior banking executives, Sanusi warns that he is prepared to force out bank chiefs who flout Central Bank rules. His criticism of lax management caused several banking executives, led by Oceanic's Cecilia Ibru, to campaign against his appointment.

An appointee from Kano (as are the ministers of Finance and National Planning), Sanusi attracted criticism from southern politicians, led by Tony Anenih, who objected to a third high-level post going to someone from Kano. Sanusi's relationship with President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua will be interesting. A few days after he started work at the Bank on 1 June, Sanusi asked that Yar'Adua's 'seven point' agenda be scaled down, given the financial crisis.

Optimists suggest that Sanusi together with the effective Finance Minister Mansur Mukhtar and Oil Minister Rilwanu Lukman will constitute a trio of reforming technocrats, to counter the influence of Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa and Anenih, the fundraiser for the governing People's Democratic Party. Sanusi seems to have little time for the political elite and the PDP. After the 2007 elections, Sanusi said of the PDP, 'Maybe they have gone far, far beyond what anyone would have expected they would do, but I think everybody knew that they were going to rig the elections.'