“30+ years of experience, UNILAG alumnus,” Here’s all we know about Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, the acting CBN governor

Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi is now the acting CBN governor.

In one of his first acts as president, Bola Tinubu of Nigeria, Friday night, suspended Godwin Emefiele as the governor of the central bank, a move that was anticipated but whose timeline remained unclear. By law, the president would have needed two-thirds of the Senate vote to sack the governor of the CBN outrightly.

As a presidential candidate, Tinubu’s campaign has criticised the previous administrations and the CBN’s badly implemented cashless policy that upended the Nigerian economy and led to a scarcity of cash for weeks in the run-up to the presidential elections.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has suspended the Central Bank Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, CFR, from office with immediate effect,” the Director of Information, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Willie Bassey said in a statement.

“This is a sequel to the ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the financial sector of the economy. Mr Emefiele has been directed to immediately hand over the affairs of his office to the Deputy Governor (Operations Directorate) {Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi], who will act as the Central Bank Governor pending the conclusion of the investigation and the reforms,” the statement said.

This means that in the meantime, Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, who was one of four deputy governors of the CBN will now serve albeit in an acting role as the chief central banker of Africa’s biggest economy, till Emefiele’s tenure ends in May next year or the investigation is concluded and he is exonerated. The other deputy governors of the CBN are Aishah Ahmed, Edward Adamu, and Kingsley Obiora.

Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi; the experienced commercial banker

Though Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi has had an expansive career rising through the ranks in commercial banking in the ’90s and aught, he has taken more operational roles in those years which raised questions about his suitability and competence for this role.

Before he got the CBN appointment by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018, he had been the MD and CEO of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), another government agency that worked in tandem with the CBN.

He studied Mechanical Engineering between 1978 to 1983 at the University of Lagos, Akoka. and then obtained an MSc in the same field also at the University of Lagos.

After working as a consultant engineer at Mek-ind Associates from 1984 to 1989, he went back to school and got an MBA with a focus on finance which propelled him to move to the IT industry, a move that went on to start his decades-long career in commercial banking.

After working as a marketing executive at Inlaks Computers Ltd from 1989 to 1990, Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi started his career in banking landing the role of head of treasury operations at Citibank Nigeria Ltd in 1990.

Then in 1993, he did a three-year stint as a supervising consultant at Agusto & Co. Ltd, after which he moved to MBC International Ltd as deputy general manager of banking operations and IT.

By 1999, Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi moved to First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Ltd where he took up the position of vice president of operations and information technology. In 2003 he jumped ship to Ecobank Nigeria Plc, where he became executive director of operations and information technology.

Shonubi has also at some point been the director of information technology and corporate services at Renaissance Securities Nigeria Ltd as well as executive director of operations, technology and services at Union Bank of Nigeria Ltd from 2009 to 2012.

At 61, he inherits an economy at the brink of carnage with rising interest rates, multiple dollar prices and bringing costs of petrol, all of which lie at the feet of the CBN governor. At the end of this month when the president is likely to announce his plans for the petrol subsidy, Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi will face perhaps his first major challenge as governor of CBN.