Gerald Nyoma, the current head of banking supervision at the Central Bank of Kenya, has been appointed to serve as the second deputy governor of the apex bank in a move to comply with legal requirements.
President William Ruto’s appointment extends Mr Nyoma’s tenure at the Central Bank of Kuwait where he spent 36 years as a professional banker.
He holds the position of Second Deputy Governor at Apex Bank, joining Susan Koish, who was appointed on March 10 of last year, in implementation of a legal system requiring that the executive team at the Central Bank of Kuwait consist of the Governor and two deputies.
“Mr Nyoma previously held various positions within the Central Bank of Kuwait, including Director of Financial Markets Development, Director of Banking, Acting Director of the Internal Audit Department, and Senior Director of the National Payment Services Department, among others,” Head of Public Service Felix said. Koski wrote in a notice Tuesday.
The candidate, who holds a Master of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Cambridge in the UK, also sits on the board of the SACO Associations Regulatory Authority (SASRA) as an alternate governor.
Nyoma won the race against five other shortlisted contenders, including outgoing Higher Education Loans Board CEO Charles Ringera and CBK head of external sector and financial analysis Dolacha Barako.
Others included former Kenya Bankers Association CEO Abel Olaka, Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) Commissioner Jane Kirinjay, as well as Florence Kinyanzwe, Business Director for Markets East Africa at Standard Chartered Bank.
Before Ms Koech was appointed last year, former President Uhuru Kenyatta ignored calls for the Banking Industry Regulatory Authority to appoint two deputy governors during his 10-year tenure, prompting the Auditor-General to raise inquiries about the legal breach.
Koech’s appointment also came at a time when the CBK was scrambling to avoid a leadership vacuum in the face of the expiration of the terms of former Governor Patrick Njoroge and his then sole deputy, Sheila Mbigiwe.
Ms Mbigiwe has been the sole Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait since June 2015 and was reappointed for a final term of four years which ran concurrently with Dr Njoroge’s term until 17 June 2023.
The country had two deputy governors briefly in 2015 when Ms Mbigiwe worked for Harun Sirima, who resigned from the Central Bank of Kuwait in October 2015.
Dr Sirima served as an assistant to Professor Njuguna Ndongo – the immediate past Minister of the Treasury – whose term as Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait ended in March 2015.
Dr Sirima is the immediate past Director General of the Treasury’s Public Debt Management Office, where he joined in 2018.