Abbas Hails Cardoso, Usoro, Dattijo, Others’ Nomination as CBN Governor, Deputies

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, has commended President Bola Tinubu for the calibre of persons he has nominated to manage the affairs of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

In a statement signed by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity of the Speaker, Mr. Musa Abdullahi Krishi, he described those nominated as eggheads in the financial and economic sectors.

Abbas, noted that they have what it takes to reposition the CBN.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had on Friday, nominated Dr. Olayemi Cardoso as the new Governor of the CBN.

The president also approved the nomination of four new Deputy Governors of the CBN. They are Muhammad Sani Abdullahi Dattijo, Emem Nnan Usoro, Philip Ikeazor and Bala M. Bello.

The Speaker noted that Cardoso, a financial expert and a banker of many years standing, would certainly bring his experience to bear in his new role as the CBN governor.

Abbas, specifically commended the president for considering Muhammad Sani Abdullahi Dattijo, from Kaduna State for a position in the CBN, noting that the nominee had been a good ambassador of the state.

Dattijo, a former Commissioner for Planning and Budget under the administration of Governor Nasir el-Rufai, was a policy adviser at the Executive Office of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in New York.

He later served as the Chief of Staff to El-rufai during the latter’s second tenure as governor of Kaduna State.

The nominee has a master’s degree in Development Economics and Policy from the University of Manchester and another master’s in International Affairs and Diplomacy from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He also has several certificates, including in Sustainable Development at the Columbia University, USA; Public Finance at the London School of Economics, and Advanced Project Management at the Oxford University, UK.

Until her nomination, Usoro was an executive director of North Bank at the United Bank for Africa (UBA), one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions.
Usoro, boasts of more than 20 years of experience in the banking sector and has been variously awarded and recognised by UBA and many other private sector agencies.

She was featured in the UBA Group’s Superwoman 101, an initiative dedicated to highlighting accomplished leaders and employees of the bank, in 2019. At the time, she was the Regional Head, Lagos Bank 2.

The banker is an alumna of Lagos Business School and Harvard Business School. In her two-decade-long career, she has held many leading roles in credit and marketing, branch management, corporate and commercial banking, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The appointees for the CBN management team are to serve for a term of five years subject to the Senate confirmation.

The Speaker, while decrying that the CBN is now faced with myriads of challenges both internally and externally, expressed confidence in the capacity of the new management team to reposition the apex bank.

Abbas noted that the appointees have a huge task ahead of them, as they are coming on board at a time when Nigeria is experiencing economic challenges, especially with regards to the country’s monetary policy.

He, however, charged the nominees to helping in navigating the country out of economic crises to prosperity.