The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has defended the appointment of Aishah Ahmad as the new deputy governor if the bank to replace Sarah Alade who retired recently.

A statement from CBN on Sunday noted the  information circulating in the social media that the bank and Diamond Bank PLC may have hastened the appointment of Ahmad to the position of ED to make her qualified for the position of DG of the Bank.

The CBN said this assumption is faulty on several ground:

“First, Section 8 (1) of the CBN Act 2007 clearly states the qualifications expected of the Governor and Deputies. The key phrase is “…persons of recognized financial experience”. And Mrs. Aishah Ahmad clearly meets that criteria, having worked for over 20 years some of which in quite Senior positions including possessing a robust educational and professional grounding in finance. The Act does not say anything about ranks in the Banking Industry. That is why we have had persons appointed to the Management of the CBN without significant Banking Sector experience. Indeed, the CBN has had deputy governors who did not get to the ED position before being appointed to the CBN.

“With respect to her age, we believe that the President made the right choice in looking to capable and qualified persons regardless of age. As can be seen from the Act, there is no minimum age required to be a DG in the CBN.

“Finally, Mrs. Ahmad was indeed independently appointed Executive Director by Diamond Bank following due approval by the Board and the CBN.

The CBN “hopes that these facts put to bed the needless controversies and that Nigerians can concentrate their energies to tackling the more serious challenges facing us as country.”

– Oct 9, 2017 @ 5: 25 GMT /