Muhammadu Sanusi II (Khalifa Sanusi II) is the spiritual leader of the Tijanniya Sufi Order of Nigeria. He was the Emir of Kano, one of Nigeria’s most influential traditional thrones, from 2014 to 2020, when he was dethroned as a result of his criticism of the Kano State Government at the time.

Sanusi served as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009 to 2014. He was previously the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of First Bank of Nigeria Plc., where he earlier served as Executive Director and Chief Risk Officer. As Governor of the CBN, Sanusi led the Bank’s successful response to the impact of the global financial system of 2008 in Nigeria. Under his leadership, the CBN stabilized, reformed and restructured the Nigerian banking system, and reduced inflation to a single-digit rate of 8% by 2013. He has won several international awards including the Central Bank Governor of the Year (worldwide) and Central Bank Governor of the Year for Africa awards, both by The Banker magazine in 2010. In 2011 TIME magazine named Sanusi one of 100 Most Influential People of 2011.

Sanusi was an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford’s African Studies Centre, He is a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, Chairman of Black Rhino, a Sub-Saharan Africa Infrastructure fund of Blackstone Group, Independent Non-Executive Director of MTN Group, Vice-Chairman of Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency, and Chancellor of the Kaduna State University.

After graduating from secondary school education at King’s College, Lagos, Sanusi obtained a B.Sc. in Economics at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria and later a master’s degree in Economics from the same university in 1983. He later obtained a degree in Islamic Studies at the International University of Africa in Khartoum, Sudan. He is currently a candidate for the Ph.D. in Islamic Law at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London.