Mallam Suleiman Barau is presently a retired Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He joined the Board of the Central Bank of Nigeria in December 2007 when he was appointed as a Deputy Governor in charge of Operations. From then till date, he has been a member of the Monetary Policy, Investment Committee, Risk and Audit Committee and Pensions Funds Management Committee of the Board some of which he chairs.
Prior to joining the Board, Suleiman was Special Advisor to the Governor, during which time he also briefly acted as Managing Director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc as well as coordinated the financial industry’s reform programme tagged “Financial System Strategy (FSS) 2020”. FSS 2020 is a well packaged reform program that aims to develop Nigeria’s financial system to power Nigeria’s ambition to be one of the top 20 largest economies in the World by the year 2020 as well as Africa’s de facto Financial Hub. Suleiman still coordinates the implementation of the Strategy and in 2007 facilitated the hosting an international conference on the same subject.
Suleiman has over 29 years of banking experience having worked in four major banks (Continental Merchant Bank, Bank of the North, UBA and FSB International Bank) where he gathered substantial experience in Commercial, Investment and Merchant Banking, prior to joining the CBN. Before then, he worked for over 7 years (including National Service) at the Nigerian Mining Corporation where he left as a Principal Economist.
Suleiman holds the National Honor of OON and is a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Bankers (FCIB) and the Nigerian Institute of Management (FNIM).
He was educated at the Ahmadu Bello University, the University of Jos and the University of Bradford from where he obtained BSc., MSc degrees as well as Post Graduate/Experience Certificate in Management Research/Planning and Appraisal of Industrial Projects respectively. He holds continuing education certificates from the Harvard Business and Kennedy (Alumnus) Schools, Stanford, IMD (Alumnus), Wharton, Insead, Kellogg and Columbia Business Schools. He also attended dozens of courses from other reputable institutions such as Euromoney, RIPA, Crown Agents and the Lagos Business School.
Suleiman has interest in Soccer, Railways, Car Racing and is a member of the National Geographic Society.
He is married with Children and Grand Children.