The move was made following a government investigation, according to a statement from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. The statement said Mr Emefiele has been ordered to immediately hand over his duties to a deputy in charge of operations, who will act as interim governor pending the conclusion of the investigation and reforms.

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele. Source: premiumtimesng

Mr. Emefiele has been the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria since June 2014. Nigeria is in an economic crisis stemming from a loose currency exchange policy. The initial goal of the plan was to eliminate the illegal cash economy and exchange new notes to force people to put Naira in banks. However, the country's banking system ran out of new notes to exchange for people before the old Naira in the market disappeared, creating the strangest crisis in Africa. Too frustrated, a series of protests and riots took place when people stormed bank branches to destroy.

Since January 2023, the new regulations of the Central Bank of this country only allow people to withdraw 100,000 Naira, equivalent to 217 USD per week. Meanwhile, the government of this country has only recovered 1.3 trillion out of the total 3.23 trillion Naira.

VNA