Abdulkadir Ahmed (31 October 1940 – 1997) was a Nigerian businessman and civil servant who was governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is the central bank and apex monetary authority of Nigeria established by the CBN Act of 1958 and commenced operations on 1 July 1959.
The major regulatory objectives of the bank as stated in the CBN Act are ...
from 1982 to 1993.
Background
Ahmed was born on 31 October 1940 in
Jama'are
Jama'are is a Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Jama'are. It has an area of 493 km and a population of 176,883 at the 2006 census.
The postal code of the area is 751.
It is populated by a Ful ...
,
Bauchi State
Bauchi State (Fula: ''Leydi Bauchi'' 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤦𞤢𞤵𞤷𞥅𞤭) is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Kano and Jigawa to the north, Taraba and Plateau to the south, Gombe and Yobe to the ea ...
. He attended
Barewa College
Barewa College is a college in Zaria, Kaduna State, northern Nigeria. Founded in 1921 by British Governor General Hugh Clifford, it was originally known as Katsina College. It switched its name to Kaduna College in 1938 and to Government College, ...
, Zaria in 1955.
He joined the New Nigerian Development Company in January, 1960.
Ahmed studied at the
University of Ife
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is a federal government-owned university that is located in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1961 and classes commenced in October 1962 as the University of Ife ...
in 1961.
He graduated from
South West London College
The South West London College was a higher education college located in the Tooting and Streatham areas of London, England.
The college was founded in 1966, and closed in 1990; initially it was proposed that it would be merged with the Thames P ...
in 1972.
Ahmed became Commissioner of Finance for Bauchi state (March 1976 - June 1977).
He was appointed a Deputy Governor with the Central Bank of Nigeria in 1977.
Before he became Commissioner of Finance, Ahmed had executive experience with Northern Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) and represented the firm in boards of associated companies such as Arewa Textiles Mills, Northern Nigeria Textiles Mills, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria and Arewa Hotels. He joined NNDC in 1960 and was sponsored for training in institutions in Nigeria and abroad. He served as area accountant of the group and in 1974, he became the group's financial controller.
Ahmed was a fellow of the Institute of Chartered and Certified Accountants and the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) is a professional accountancy body in Nigeria. It is one of the two professional accountancy associations with regulatory authority in Nigeria, the other being the Association of National A ...
.
[
]
Governor of the Central Bank
Ahmed was appointed the Governor of the Bank on 27 June 1982 and retired on 30 September 1993.[
He held office for over 11 years during democratic government of ]Shehu Shagari
Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari (25 February 1925 – 28 December 2018), titled Turakin Sokoto from 1962, was the first democratically elected President of Nigeria, after the transfer of power by military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo in ...
and interim government of Ernest Shonekan
Chief Ernest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan (9 May 1936 – 11 January 2022) was a Nigerian lawyer and statesman who served as the interim Head of State of Nigeria from 26 August 1993 to 17 November 1993. He was titled Abese of Egbaland from ...
, and the military regimes of Generals Muhammadu Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015.
Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 Au ...
and Ibrahim Babangida
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (born 17 August, 1941) is a retired Nigerian Army general and politician. He served as military president of Nigeria from 1985 until his resignation in 1993. He rose through the ranks to serve from 1984 to 1985 as Ch ...
.
He was the first chairman of the board of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) is a statutory body established by NDIC Act No. 16 of 2006 with exclusive mandate of administering the Deposit Insurance System (DIS) in Nigeria. As one of the components of the nation’s financial ...
when it was established on 15 June 1988.
During his tenure, the Shagari regime awarded contracts for construction of the Kafin Zaki Dam
The Kafin Zaki Dam is a controversial project to build a reservoir on the Jama'are River (also called the Bunga River in its upper reaches) in Bauchi State in the Northeast of Nigeria.
Proposed dam and reservoir
The proposed dam would be of zo ...
in Bauchi State. Both Ahmed and water resources minister Abubakar Hashidu were natives of the state. The successor government of Military ruler General Sani Abacha
Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military officer and politician who ruled as the military head of state of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998. He seized power on 17 November 1993 in the last successful c ...
cancelled the project and appointed a judicial committee of inquiry.
Abacha also set up a panel of inquiry into CBN activities under his predecessors.
In 1988, Governor Ahmed achieved the first debt reduction transaction in the international markets by restructuring the trade arrears of Nigeria into CBN Promissory Notes. The restructuring was done on a voluntary basis, with over 2/3 of the noteholders agreeing to the restructuring at a bondholders meeting at Wembley Conference Centre in London. Governor Ahmed convinced noteholders to accept the debt reduction deal by allowing creditors to set strict terms of default for the notes. The Governor feared that subsequent Nigerian administrations would attempt to renege on the note payments, so he permitted creditors to set very harsh terms of default for the notes. As a result, the Promissory Notes, which totalled over US$5 billion, were paid in full in January 2010, and Nigeria's credit rating has greatly improved as a result. This transaction, and Nigeria's performance on the CBN Notes, allowed Nigeria to restructure another $5 billion of bank debt into Brady Bonds in 1992. Brady Bonds also had an element of debt reduction, which greatly lowered Nigeria foreign exchange cost.
Governor Ahmed then initiated the first comprehensive sovereign debt buyback in the international markets, which further reduced Nigeria's foreign exchange burden, between 1988 and 1993, through an overseas subsidiary company named Greenland Holdings. After allegations of impropriety in the deals, a Senate investigation committee in 2000 exonerated the governor and stated that the deals had been beneficial to the country, reducing foreign debt by $5 billion at an average cost to Nigeria of 32% of the face value of the debt purchased.
Later career
In the early 1990s, Ahmed, bought a first class return ticket for a trip to London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
with members of his family from British Airways
British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...
. On the return journey, BA downgraded the former Central Bank governor's ticket to economy class on the basis that he had paid in naira rather than a "hard" currency.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed, Abdulkadir
1940 births
1997 deaths
Nigerian Muslims
Nigerian bankers
Central bankers
Governors of the Central Bank of Nigeria
Barewa College alumni
Obafemi Awolowo University alumni
People from Bauchi State