‘Endorsed!’ CBN authorizes Abdullahi as new FBN Holdings chairman

Freelanews December 18, 2021

Shortly after the resignation of the FBN Holdings chairman on Friday in the person of Remi Babalola as reported by Freelanews (see news here – Remi Babalola resigns as FBN Holdings Chairman). The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has now approved the appointment of Ahmad Abdullahi to chair the directors’ board of financial services firm FBN Holdings Plc.

Mr Babalola left the firm owing to a “fight by certain major shareholders for control of First Bank Holding Plc,” according to Osita Nwanisobi, the regulator’s spokesperson.

Mr Abdullahi, who was the director and head of the CBN’s Banking Supervision unit until last February, has a wide range of experience in bank crisis resolution, financial regulation, and academics in addition to being an economist.

After joining the CBN as a manager, Mr Abdullahi coordinated retail banking services at three of the apex bank’s branches before becoming director of the Other Financial Institutions Supervision section in 2014.

He graduated from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics and formerly worked as a lecturer at Usman Dan Fodiyo University in Sokoto.

Currently, Mr Abdullahi is a board member of Asset Management Company of Nigeria, Africa Finance Corporation, FMDQ Group, Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation and African Finance Corporation.

Mr Nwanisobi stated that CBN’s regulatory interventions at FirstBank particularly are generating positive change particularly in areas like corporate governance, openness and building stakeholders’ confidence.