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Somalia: Yussur Abrar named first female Central Bank governor
Somalia named Yussur Abrar as the country’s first female central bank governor, replacing Abdusalam Omer, who resigned after a United Nations monitoring group accused him of mismanaging the government’s money.
Ms. Abrar has spent the past 30 years working for international banks and insurance companies, Shador Hajji, a press officer in the presidency in the capital, Mogadishu, said by phone today. She will formally assume the role after a handover, the date of which has yet to be confirmed, he said.
Omer, who held the job for seven months, said he presented his letter of resignation “after the president told me that he was going to reshuffle all the government institutions, so before that I decided to quit,” he said in a phone interview.
Somalia’s government said on September 6 that an investigation into a UN monitoring group report published in July showed its “condemnation of the Somali Central Bank Governor Abdusalam Omer’s stewardship of the bank was entirely unwarranted.”
An allegation by the UN monitors that US$12 million had gone missing from a US$16.9 million transfer to the central bank was incorrect, and all the money “is fully accounted for,” the government said in a press statement.
According to the same press statmement, Florida-based FTI Consulting Inc., and a group of lawyers conducted an independent investigation at the request of the government.
Somalia is rebuilding its economy from scratch after damage caused by a long civil war – since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Government and African Union peacekeeping forces have largely stemmed the advance of the al-Qaeda-linked militants, resulting in stability and economic recovery.
Source: Bloomberg