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, Sudan, 1991-97.

Career: Area Manager, ICON Limited, Kano; Principal Manager, Risk Management Division, United Bank for Africa, 1997; Assistant General Manager, United Bank for Africa, 1998; Head, Risk Management Department, United Bank for Africa; Executive Director, Risk Management and Control, First Bank, 2005; Chief Executive, First Bank, 2009; appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, June 2009. 

Commentary: Urbane and intellectual, Nigeria's Central Bank Governor Mallam 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.

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.'