Patrick Njoroge

 Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya Patrick Ngugi Njoroge

Born in 1961, Patrick Ngugi Njoroge is an economist, banker and the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya from June 2015 to date.

He attended Mangu High School from 1973 until 1976, for his O-Level education.

He graduated with a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Nairobi in 1985 before pursuing a PhD in Economics at Yale University in 1993. 

Following his PhD studies, he worked as an economist at the Ministry of Finance from March 1993 until December 1994.

From April 1995 until October 2005, he worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D. C., first as an economist and later as a senior economist. 

From November 2005 until December 2006, he served as the IMF mission chief for Dominica.

He then served as the deputy division chief, Finance Department, at the IMF, from December 2006 until December 2012, based in Washington, D. C. 

From December 2012 until June 2015, he served as an advisor to the deputy managing director of the IMF.

He was nominated to be the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya on June 2, 2015

In November 2018, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres appointed Njoroge to the United Nations' Task Force on Digital Financing of Sustainable Development Goals, co-chaired by Maria Ramos and Achim Steiner.

After the decommissioning of the old 1,000 notes, Njoroge released Ksh7.4 billion to the Government which had been rendered worthless after their holders failed to beat the September 30, 2019 deadline to exchange them with new notes.

In 2020, Njoroge provided timely leadership in Kenya’s response to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. The CBK instructed mobile money platforms to waive fees for sending less than Ksh 1,000 and allowing free transfer of mobile money between different banks.

CBK also helped cushion Kenya’s currency amid the tough economic times occasioned by the virus.

He instructed banks to negotiate loan repayment terms with their customers who had been affected by loss of income due to the pandemic.