Uneasy Calm In CBN As Cardoso ‘Retires’ Directors Employed By Emefiele

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yemi Cardoso, is poised to retire eight directors of the apex bank, pending any unforeseen developments.

It has been gathered that the directors, who were appointed during the tenure of the former governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, will receive early retirement notices this week.

Daily Trust reports that initially, certain directors were reassigned to a division of the bank known as FSS 2020, operating within the Governor’s Directorate and closely collaborating with Emefiele.

It was reported that the directors have worked from the Directorate’s office located in the Maitama District of Abuja since November 24, 2023, and are kept in a sort of pool to await “further directives.”

Sources within the bank, as reported by the newspaper, indicated that some individuals had already received their termination letters as of Friday, March 15th, 2024. However, it remains unclear the exact terms under which those affected were terminated.

One of the sources said: “We don’t know whether they were given early retirement or their appointments were terminated outright.”

The sources could not confirm if those being served early retirement letters have been found guilty of any offences, adding that the news of the planned sack has been widespread since Thursday last week.

One of the sources said the main reason for the sack of the affected officials was “because they had worked very closely with the immediate past governor of the bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele”.

It was learned that the decision has raised great concern amongst staff of the CBN, who fear that it could be a prelude to more layoffs by the current management of the banking regulator.

Recall that the apex bank had relocated no fewer than 150 staff of the Banking Supervision Department (BSD), which is one of the 29 departments of the bank, to Lagos. The BSD is under the Financial System Stability Directorate of the CBN.

The relocation saga, it would be recalled, had generated heated controversy across the country, with many people of northern extraction alleging that it was an attempt to dislodge staff who are northerners from the institution.

But the CBN rebuffed those insinuations, insisting that it was part of a proper reorganisation of the bank, to ensure that the regular onsite examination of the 24 banks in the country was diligently carried out since most of those national and regional banks are headquartered in Lagos.

It also adduced that part of the reason for the relocation was the desire to de-congest the corporate headquarters of the bank.