ABUJA, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Olayemi Cardoso, recently nominated by Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu to become the country’s next central bank governor, took office on Friday pending his official confirmation by the Senate, the central bank said.

Cardoso takes office following the resignation of Godwin Emefiele, who was suspended as central bank chief by Tinubu in June and later detained by police and charged with procurement fraud.

Four new designated deputy governors also began work on Friday in an acting capacity after the resignation of Emefiele’s deputies, including Folashodun Shonubi, who acted as governor after Emefiele’s suspension, the central bank said in a statement.

The presidency said last week that Tinubu had sent Cardoso’s nomination to the Senate for confirmation alongside those of his four new deputy governors. At his inauguration in May, Tinubu had criticised the central bank’s policies under Emefiele, saying they needed a “thorough house-cleaning”.

Cardoso and his deputies “have since settled down to the task of administering monetary and financial sector policies” after a brief ceremony, central bank spokesperson Isa Abdulmumin said in a statement.

The Senate, parliament’s upper chamber, reconvenes next Tuesday after a recess but it was not immediately clear when it would confirm the nominations.

INTEREST RATES

Nigeria’s central bank on Thursday delayed an interest rate meeting scheduled for next week, saying it would reschedule a new meeting later, without providing further details.

In July, the central bank opted for a smaller-than-expected rate hike of 25 basis points at its first monetary policy meeting since Emefiele’s suspension.

Emefiele had used a much-criticised system of multiple exchange rates to bolster the naira currency and lent directly to businesses to try to boost growth in Africa’s largest economy.

Cardoso, a former head of Citibank in Nigeria, will need to boost dollar liquidity in the official market to stabilise the naira after it fell to a record 980 on the black market this week, nearing the psychologically sensitive level of 1,000 naira per dollar.

Declining dollar supply from the central bank has helped accelerate the slide of the naira on the black market, as unmet demand for imports and speculative activities by individuals who turn to the dollar as a store of value pile pressure on the currency, one trader said.

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