The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is said to be preparing to retire eight directors who were hired during Emefiele’s tenure

Reports have emerged that Yemi Cardoso, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is planning to retire eight directors of the apex bank who were employed under the former governor, Godwin Emefiele. It is said that the directors will be served early retirement letters this week. According to Daily Trust, some directors were initially moved to FSS 2020, a branch of the bank that works closely with Emefiele, the former Governor. The directors have worked from the Directorate’s office located in the Maitama District of Abuja since 24th November 2023 and are kept in a sort of pool to await “further directives”. Sources within the CBN revealed that the notice to retire had already been served the disengagement letters since Friday, 15th March 2024, but could not state clearly under what terms those affected were disengaged. It is uncertain whether they were given early retirement or their appointments were terminated outright. The CBN sources could not confirm if those being asked to retire had 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”. 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. 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 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. However, 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. The CBN also claimed that part of the reason for the relocation was the desire to de-congest the corporate headquarters of the bank.