Eight directors at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who worked closely with the former governor, Godwin Emefiele, have been served early retirement letters.
The move, our reporter understands, was approved by the current CBN governor, Yemi Cardoso.
The directors, some of whom were initially redeployed to an arm of the bank, FSS 2020 under the Governor’s Directorate, whose office is located in the Maitama District of Abuja since 24th November 2023, and kept in a sort of pool to await “further directives”, are being asked to exit the CBN.
Sources say that some of the directors had already been served the disengagement letters since Friday but could not state clearly under what terms were those affected disengaged.
“We don’t know whether they were given early retirement, or their appointments were terminated outright”, a source told Daily Trust on the condition of anonymity.
Although sources could not confirm if those being served early retirement letters have been found guilty of any offences, they said main reason for the sack of the affected officials, according to most of our sources, was “because they had worked very closely with the immediate past governor of the bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele”.
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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.
Recall that the CBN had relocated to Lagos, no fewer than 150 staff of the Banking Supervision Department (BSD), which is one of the 29 departments of the bank.
The move had generated mixed reactions across the country, with many alleging that it was an attempt to dislodge staff who are northerners from the institution.
But the CBN dismissed those insinuations, insisting that it was part of a proper re-organisation of the bank, to ensure that the regular onsite examination of the 24 banks in the country were diligently carried out, since most of those national and regional banks are headquartered in Lagos.
It also adduced as part of the reason for the relocation, the desire to de-congest the corporate headquarters of the bank.
