The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved the appointment of Ahmad Abdullahi as a non-executive director and chairman of First Bank Holdings PLC.

This follows the resignation of Remi Babalola as chairman of the company.

Osita Nwanisobi, CBN director of corporate communications, disclosed this on Friday.

According to Nwanisobi, the apex bank was notified of the resignation of Babalola as chairman of the company against the backdrop of the contest by some significant shareholders for control of First Bank Holdings PLC.

The CBN spokesman thank Babalola for his services and acknowledged the strides recorded by the company under his watch.

Abdullahi, the new chairman, is an economist with long years of experience in academia, banking supervision, and financial regulation, and he retired as director of banking supervision, CBN in February 2020.

He is also an expert in bank crisis resolution, and also serves on the boards of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), FMDQ, NDIC, and AMCON.