Godwin Emefiele, a politician, economist, and financier from Nigeria, was born on 4 August 1961. He has been the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria since 4 June 2014.
Emefiele Wiki
Date of birth: 4 August 1961
Place of birth: Lagos State, Nigeria
Spouse: Margaret Emefiele
Children: 2
Education: Master of Arts degree in Finance
Alma mater: University of Nigeria Nsukka,
Stanford University, Harvard University, Wharton School of Business
Website: godwinemefiele.com
Emefiele background and education
Godwin Emefiele is a resident of Agbor in Delta State and was born in the modern-day Nigerian state of Lagos on August 4, 1961.
He went the prestigious University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) for his postsecondary education after attending Ansarudin Primary School and Maryland Comprehensive Secondary in Lagos.
In 1984, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Banking and Finance, graduating as one of the top students in his cohort.
He went to UNN shortly after completing his National Youth Service to earn a master’s in finance, which he did so in 1986.
Additionally, he graduated from the Executive Education programs at Stanford University, Harvard University in 2004, and the Wharton School of Business in 2005.
The University of Nigeria Nsukka(UNN) awarded him an honorary doctorate in business administration.
Career in the private sector
Emefiele lectured on insurance and finance early in his work at the Universities of Nigeria Nsukka and Port Harcourt, respectively. Additionally, he briefly worked for Vodafone.
He had more than eighteen years of banking expertise before joining the Central Bank. He held the positions of group managing director and CEO of Zenith Bank Plc.
Since 2001, he has held the position of Zenith Bank Plc’s assistant managing director.
He was a founding member of Zenith Bank Plc’s management team and served as executive director in charge of corporate banking, treasury, financial control, and strategy planning.
He held the position of chairman at both Zenith Bank (Gambia) Limited and Zenith Bank Plc. At ACCION Microfinance Bank Limited, he is a shareholder.
Governor of the Central Bank
Emefiele has served as the Nigerian Central Bank’s head since 2014. At the direction of the president, he oversaw an interventionist currency strategy during his first term that involved flooding the foreign exchange market with billions of dollars to support the Nigerian Naira.
In an effort to hide the strain on the Naira and prevent a string of devaluations, he also instituted a multiple exchange rate regime.
Emefiele was granted a second five-year tenure by the Nigerian Senate in 2019. Since the restoration of democracy to Nigeria in 1999, no one has been elected to a second term.
On May 9, 2019, Senator Bukola Saraki read the message from President Buhari. He underwent a screening on Wednesday, and on May 16th, 2019, he received proof.
Godwin Emefiele entered into partisan politics in a first for any head of the Nigerian central bank, defying the Central Bank Act’s requirements that the governor must always maintain an independent and apolitical stance in order to maintain the bank’s nonpartisan stance.
Emefiele angered the people in May 2022 when it became known that he intended to run against President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2023 election.
What began as a rumor when campaign posters for the bank governor inundated Abuja, the nation’s capital, soon gained momentum when a group of purported rice farmers bought the APC Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s presidential form.
Emefiele announced he would not be running for president in a sequence of tweets sent from his verified account.
But in a sudden turn of events, Emefiele filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja asking the court to issue an order telling the electoral authority and the attorney general’s office not to prevent him from running for president.
The court declined the request but asked the pair to formally argue why Emefiele’s request ought to be denied.
Civil Society Organizations and Nigerians have brought numerous court cases requesting the ouster of the CBN Governor and charging him with numerous violations of the Central Bank Act.
Other pursuits
Board of Governors Ex-Officio Member for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (since 2018)
Member of the Governing Board: International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) (since 2018)
Net Worth
On the subject of Godwin Emefiele’s real value, there are numerous estimates in circulation.
According to some reports, the economist’s fortune is as high as fifty million dollars, while other accounts put the figure as low as two million dollars. Some of these stories conflict with one another.
In any case, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria is among the most significant figures in the Nigerian economy and has accumulated a sizable fortune over the years.
The handsome man has spent decades making a contribution to the public and private areas of the economy.
His net worth will be rated in million dollars which lead him to rank among the richest and most influential people in the Nigeria.