Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has been suspended from his position by President Bola Tinubu.
The Director of Information, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Willie Bassey, made the announcement yesterday, on behalf of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
According to Bassey, “This is sequel to the ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the financial sector of the economy.
Emefiele has been directed to immediately hand over the affairs of his office to the Deputy Governor (Operations Directorate), who will act as the Central Bank Governor pending the conclusion of investigation and the reforms.
The development is coming less than two weeks after President Tinubu assumed office and months after the CBNs heavily-criticized naira swap.
Recall that former President Muhammadu Buharis government introduced new bank notes late last year, arguing it would help tackle vote-buying, insecurity and fight inflation among others. But weeks before the polls, the country was hit with a cash crunch as the CBN withdrew the old notes, a development that drew criticisms from top personalities.
Some State governors even took the matter to court, with Tinubu faulting the implementation of the policy. As the then-presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Tinubu asked the CBN to allow both old and new notes to co-exist. In the lead-up to the presidential election, his campaign team claimed the move was targeted at Tinubu.
During his inauguration, President Tinubu did not mince words about the naira swap policy and promised to review it. He maintained that it was too harshly applied by the CBN given the number of unbanked Nigerians.
