Senate confirms Cardoso as new CBN Governor, Usoro, Dattijo, Bello, Ikeazor as Deputy CBN Governors
The Senate has confirmed Dr. Olayemi Micheal Cardoso as substantive Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The confirmation followed hours of rigorous screening, which ended at about 5:45pm on Tuesday, at a plenary presided over by Senate President Goodswill Akpabio.
Dr. Cardoso was confirmed along with four other nominees screened as deputy governors. They include Mrs. Emem Nnana Usoro, Mr. Muhammad Sani Abdullahi Dattijo, Mr. Philip Ikeazor and Dr. Bala M. Bello.
President Bola Tinubu had, on Friday, September 15, approved the nomination of Cardoso to serve as the new Governor of the apex bank. He also approved the nomination of the four deputy governors for a term of five years each at the first instance.
His nomination came three months after Godwin Emefiele was suspended as governor of the apex bank and Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, the Deputy Governor, Operations Directorate, was appointed to fill his shoes in an acting capacity.
Cardoso had assumed office last Friday along with other nominees while awaiting confirmation by the Senate.
During the screening on Tuesday, Cardoso pledged to partner with the Red Chamber and strengthen the Naira.
He also vowed before the lawmakers never to allow undue influence to override his authority as CBN Governor.
Born to parents who were descendants of Brazilian returnees, his father, Felix Bankole Cardoso, was the first indigenous accountant-general of Nigeria in 1963, and the first indigenous vice-chairman and managing director of Barclays Bank of Nigeria.
Cardoso attended Corona School, Ikoyi, and St. Gregory’s College in Lagos for his primary and secondary education, respectively. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in managerial and administrative studies from Aston University in 1980, and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS) in 2005 as a Mason Fellow.
The 66-year-old is a professional banker with several years of experience with Chase Bank, Citibank, and Citizens International Bank, among others. He began his professional career at Howard Tilly & Co. as a chartered accountant in London before transitioning to the banking industry.
In 1981, he secured a position at the renowned Citibank. Cardoso returned to Nigeria in 1982 and joined Chase Merchant Bank, an affiliate of Chase Manhattan; in 1984, he went back to Citibank when the organisation obtained a license to operate as a full-fledged commercial bank in Nigeria.
Along with some of his Citibank colleagues, Cardoso founded Citizens Bank in 1990 where he served as the head of corporate banking and head of treasury and financial institutions.
He is an erstwhile chairman of the board of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance, and most recently, chairman of Citibank Nigeria Ltd, and the founding chairman and co-chair of the Ehingbeti Summit, the Lagos state economic summit. He is also a member of the advisory board of Lagos Business School (LBS).
Upon Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, Cardoso was appointed by Tinubu as Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning & Budget.
At the end of his service in government, Cardoso engaged himself at the intersection of finance, governance and public policy. He provided consultancy services on development and financial matters. He founded the Africa Institute for Leadership and Public Administration (AILPA), which focused on promoting private-public partnerships.
In a 2023 opinion piece titled ‘The Jagaban I know’, Cardoso wrote about his relationship with Tinubu whom he said he first encountered while he was a bank officer handling oil accounts. At that time, he said Tinubu was a treasurer at Mobil.
According to Cardoso, he was drawn to Tinubu because of “his unflinching support for Chief M.K.O. Abiola during the dying embers of the abrogated Third Republic”.
Their relationship lasted beyond Tinubu’s private sector years and his time as senator up until the former Lagos governor appointed him as commissioner in his administration.
