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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.