Dr. Njoroge retains his position as the banking regulator boss

President Uhuru Kenyatta has re-appointed Dr. Patrick Njoroge as Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor for another four-year term just days after the banking sector regulator initiated a transition from old to new generation currency in a move to tame wide spread money laundering and to bolster the ongoing war against corruption.

The reappointment, effective June 18 2019, was announced by President Kenyatta through a special gazette notice dated May 24, 2019 and issued Thursday 6th June 2019.

“In exercise of the powers conferred to me by section 13 (2) of the Central Bank of Kenya Act, I Uhuru Kenyatta President and Commander of the Republic of Kenya Defence Forces re-appoint Patrick Ngugi Njoroge to be the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya for a period of four years with effect from the 11th June 2019,” said President Kenyatta.

Dr. Patrick Njoroge, the CBK boss’s new four year tenure grips him at the helm of the monetary regulator until 2023 whence he is expected to to deliver on a fresh reporting framework for Credit Referencing Bureaus (CRBs). He is also mandated to fast track the release of the new generation notes as launched recently at-least in the short term.

In the June 6 statement, President Kenyatta also extended by four years the tenure of Dr. Njoroge’s deputy, Sheila M’Mbijjewe who was also expected to leave office alongside her boss. The Board chairman, Mohammed Nyaoga’s terms have also been extended for the same period.

The CBK Governor was appointed in June 2015 as a replacement for Prof. Njuguna Ndungu on a four-year contract as the banking regulator boss and was expected to exit office in June 2019 upon expiry of his term.

Assessing his four-year stint, Governor Njoroge summarized his tenure as the very head and tail defining the course of his stay, but insisted on the need to focus on the deliverables amidst the transition audit.

“There have been many successes, failures and sleepless nights. This is however not the time to have a reappraisal of what has happened but a period to deliver on what needs to be done,” he said.

During his first term, banks came under the heat of enforcement of banking rules under the Yale trained economist’s reign, what saw some lenders placed under receivership including Chase Bank (which has since reopened), Imperial Bank that is the subject of a sale transaction with KCB Group, and Dubai Bank that is currently under liquidation.

Also, Dr Njoroge’s first reign had banks ration credit to small businesses with the enactment of a law that limits lending rates to not more than four percentage points above the Central Bank Rate.