Ola Vincent, former CBN gov, dies at 86

THE fifth governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and former Vice-President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr Ola Vincent, is dead.

Aged 86 years, Vincent died in Saint Nicholas Hospital in Lagos, on Monday afternoon.

He called the shot as the CBN boss for five years, between June 28, 1977 and June 28, 1982.

On retirement in 1982, the world-class economist recommended the creation of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC), which was established six years after in 1988.

The banking icon was educated at CMS Grammar School, Lagos, between 1936 and 1939; attended the Administrative Staff College in England from 1953 to 1956 and later the University of Manchester.

As fifth CBN governor since the country's independence, he supervised an economy that boasted of five commercial banks and a 0.647 exchange rate of naira to the United States dollar and left it at 0.673.

He started his career with the Federal Ministry of Finance in 1959 as a senior assistant secretary and later joined the CBN as an assistant general manager and rose as a general manager in the bank in 1966.

Following the expiration of his term at AfDB, he returned to the CBN in 1973 as an adviser and later rose to the position of a deputy governor in 1975.

In recognition of his contributions to the development of the economy, Vincent was named a Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) in 1982.

Reacting to his death, the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) said he was a role model, whose support for the institute and the profession could not be quantified.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on telephone, the Registrar and Chief Executive of the institute, Dr 'Uju Ogubunka, described Ola Vincent as "an elder stateman and a distinguished banker of note."

Also, a retiree of the CBN, Chief Timothy Ukegheson, who was at the CBN when Vincent was governor, while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on telephone, confirmed that Ola Vincent could better be remembered for promoting the interest of bank depositors.

At the time of going to press, CBN was yet to react officially to the death, but the workers at the Lagos office annex described him as an accomplished banker in all ramifications.