President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Abbas Umar Masanawa as Managing Director of the Nigeria Security Printing And Minting Company, (NSPMC).

The president also approved the appointments of Abubakar Sule Minjibir, Chris Orewa and Tunji Kazeem as Executive Directors in the company.

This is sequel to the recommendation by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, in a memo dated Aug. 28 to the President which was approved.

Emefiele in the memo, confirmed that the tenure of the current Managing Director, Mr Joseph Ugboh and Executive Director (Finance), Abbas Masanawa, had ended in August.

He noted that the affected directors took over as executive management members of the company in 2014.

According to him, the Nigeria security printing and minting company is wholly owned subsidiary of the CBN with sole responsibility to produce Nigeria’s currency and a range of other important security documents.

He explained that prior to its takeover in Aug. 2014 by the CBN, the NSPMC was unfortunately a loss making entity.

“Upon the takeover, the company returned to profitability with profit before taxes of N611 million, N4.6 billion and N12.1 billion during financial years ended 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively,’’ he said.

He maintained that with these results, the management had displayed strong dexterity to turn around moribund institutions.

He, therefore, opined that “by the existing organisational structure and to attain its full potentials, the NSPMC should be managed by a team comprising managing director and four executive directors.’’

Abbas Masanawa, a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, obtained his postgraduate degree in Business Administration from University of Maiduguri in 2000.

He worked briefly with FSB Bank before joining Zenith Bank where he worked for about 17 years.

He rose to the position of Deputy General Manager before his appointment in 2014 as the Special Assistant and Chief Liaison to the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria in Sept. 2014.

Masanawa has undergone various courses on Leadership, Organisational Management, Strategic Thinking and Finance in Harvard Business School, USA; London Business School UK, SAID Business School Oxford, among others.

Mr  Tunji Kazeem holds a B. A. Economics and Accounting from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA and Masters Business Administration with specialisation in Investment Management from Columbia Business School, New York.

Kazeem has a deep knowledge of revenue model and balance sheet of financial institutions and inherent risks from his varied experience that spanned over two decades and had worked as a Senior Risk Manager with LMC Group, New York.

Chris Orewa holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration and had worked as an industrial engineer in England as well as a Quality Assurance for Ford Motor in Canada and Auditor, Unilever Canada.

He has over 30 years’ experience at managerial level and his career cuts across many disciplines of quality assurance, production and engineering.

Minjibir obtained a B. SC. Degree in Chemistry from Bayero University, Kano, and acquired postgraduate degrees in Business Administration with emphasis on Financial Management.

He is a Harvard trained General Management Executive and a fellow of Institute of Management Consultant.