NIGERIA'S CENTRAL bank governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, 50, was voted Africa Person of the Year by prestigious financial publication, Forbes magazine.

Mr. Sanusi, who is said to have initiated reforms in Nigeria's troubled banking sector since his appointment in 2009, beat five other candidates to the top honour, including Nobel Peace laureate and Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

In his acceptance speech Mr. Sanusi, who was named on Monday (November 28), credited his success to employers at the bank.

"Everything achieved as governor is a collective result of the 5,000 hardworking workers of the bank," he said.

In a statement, Forbes said the 50-year-old was among those who had had 'significant influence on the events of 2011 on the African continent.' Mr. Sanusi received the most votes by the magazine's readers in an online poll.

"The hard line reforms, which drew criticisms and personalised attacks from some interested parties on the domestic front, earned him the approval of even western regulators and politicians, many of whom are still struggling for solutions to the financial crises in their own countries,'' the statement read.

Mr. Sanusi beat Mrs Sirleaf, a Nigeria business tycoon who tops Forbes' list of Africa's richest people, former Cape Verde President Pedro Verona Pires, who won this year's $5m (£3.2m) Mo Ibrahim prize for good governance in Africa and Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan Nobel Peace laureate, who died in September.

The central bank bailed out nine banks and removed their chief executives who were accused of fraudulent practices.

Several of the ousted bankers have been put on trial for alleged financial mismanagement.

Nigerians to dey rig . . . . .