No. 17 - HRH Muhammad Sanusi II

Nigerian. Economist, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, former Emir of Kano. His Highness Muhammad Sanusi II became the 14th Fulani Emir of Kano in 2014. Born July 31, 1961, Sanusi descends from a lineage marked by its combination of royal blood and public service. Numerous imams and judges are to be found among his forebears. Sanusi’s father was a pioneer career diplomat of Nigeria and served in Canada, Belgium and China. After childhood, Qur’anic studies and elementary school, Sanusi entered King’s College Lagos, then earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. In 1985, he launched a distinguished banking career at ICON Ltd. Merchant Bankers, a subsidiary of Morgan Guaranty Trust and Baring Brothers. Later, he joined United Bank for Africa, running its credit and risk management division and then rising to the position of general manager. In 2005, he moved to First Bank, where he was appointed group managing director in 2009. Alongside this work in the financial industry, Sanusi never ceased pursuing his scholarship in Islamic history, thought, and law. After years of private study under the tutorial of a number of learned ulama’, he left banking to enrol in the Africa International University in Khartoum, Sudan, where he earned a degree in Islamic studies and fiqh in 1997. In June 2009, Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’adua appointed Sanusi governor of the central bank. In 2014 he was suspended by President Goodluck Jonathan after raising the alarm on the US$20 billion NNPC scandal. Since then he is living in exile, teaching as an academic fellowship at the University of Oxford.

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