OGWUMA, Paul Agbai; Economist, Chartered Accountant, administrator and Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN between 1995 and 1999. He is a recipient of the national honour of the order of the Federal Republic, OFR. Born in Isiala Ngwa, Abia State in April 24, 1932, Ogwuma was at various times, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Union Bank of Nigeria Plc., and Chairman, Board of Directors, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accounts, England and Wales; Institute of Chartered Accounts of Nigeria. ICAN: and associate of the Institute of Bankers, London[i].
Ogwuma was educated at St. Michael School, Aba; New Bethel College, Onitsha and Bradford Institute of Technology, Bradford University[ii] where he studied 1959-62. He was appointed accountant, Board of Trade, London, UK, 1966-77; investigations accountant and senior executive, later management consultant, Industrial and Commercial Corporation Limited, ICFC, London[iii].
On May 1998, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under Dr. Paul Ogwuma wrote a nine-page review paper (in its maiden issue of its Special Economic Review Series, SERS, dated May 4,1998) titled “Persistent Shortages of Petroleum Products in Nigeria: A Re-appraisal of Causes, Effects and Remedies.” Just over a month later, on June 8, Sani Abacha, the then military dictator of Nigeria, died. On account of avoiding fuel shortages, government of his time had purportedly always been increasing pump prices. That notion is the connection between the CBN write-up and the problems that became endemic in subsequent admionistration. Ogwuma’s review noted that in 1997, when there was a meager pump price for petrol, the country had the distribution of charges of PTF N5.30, Government N2.40, NNPC N2.00, Marketers N1.30, totaling N11.00. PTF was the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (later scrapped) that was headed by General Muhammadu Buhari, while NNPC is the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, both government parastatals[iv].
[i] Insider, April 24, 2006
[ii] The NEWS, April 28, 2003
[iii] Newswatch, April 24, 2006
[iv] The NEWS, November 15, 2004
