Kingsley Obiora deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been arrested by the Department of State Security Services (DSS).
His arrest is in connection with the ongoing investigation of financial mismanagement by the suspended governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Obiora’s arrest is believed to be aimed at helping provide valuable information to help the secret police in their court case against the embattled bank governor. It is believed that the arrest of Obiora, deputy CBN governor in charge of economic policy, should help unravel the extent of financial mismanagement committed under the management of Emefiele.
He has in-depth knowledge of the workings of the bank, given his knowledge of CBN’s policy decisions.
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Obiora, 47, has a background in economics with a first degree from the University of Benin, while his M.Sc and Ph.D. degrees are from the University of Ibadan.
He had worked as a policy expert in the capacity of an Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund. In this capacity, he was a member of the Executive Board, collectively responsible for conducting the daily operations of the IMF.
He also assisted in representing the interests of 23 African countries, including Nigeria, on the board. His job and commitment to assisting the 23 African countries exposed him to former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, where he advised her from time to time.
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He continued in that same advisory capacity until his appointment as one of CBN’s four deputy governors was confirmed by former President Muhammadu Buhari on March 2, 2020.
He first joined the IMF through the globally competitive “Economist Program” in 2007 and worked in both the European Department as well as the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department, carrying out extensive work on exchange rate assessment, debt sustainability analyses, decoupling and spillovers, real sector analyses, as well as several reviews of Financial Sector Assessments.
Prior to this, Obiora worked at the West African Monetary Institute in Accra, Ghana, and the Centre for Econometric and Allied Research at the University of Ibadan.
While on secondment from the IMF, Obiora simultaneously served as Technical Adviser to Nigeria’s National Economic Management Team as well as Special Assistant to President Jonathan’s Chief Economic Adviser from October 2011 to May 2014.
During this time, he played key roles in helping shape the country’s economic policies on several fronts, including energy subsidies, power sector reform, measurement of job creation, the architecture of development financing, diversification of the economy, oil price benchmarking in the budgetary process, regulatory framework for doing business, port reform, and asset-based economic mapping and modeling.
From June 2014 until July 2018, Obiora served as Special Adviser on Economic Matters to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
During this role, he contributed to the overall analytical and policy work of the CBN, bringing his extensive international and domestic economic experiences to bear in helping the Bank understand the ramifications of and deal with spillovers from the external shocks emanating from the significant drop in global oil prices.
