Kathmandu, April 6
Maha Prasad Adhikari has been appointed the governor of Nepal Rastra Bank. He will lead the country’s central bank for the next five years.
Taking over the NRB leadership will be like a homecoming for Adhikari as he spent over two decades of his career there. He had retired as the deputy governor in December 2015. As the deputy governor, he worked in close contacts with current Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada who was the NRB governor from 2010 to 2015.
When Chiranjibi Nepal was appointed the NRB governor as Khatiwada’s successor, Adhikari was also considered a strong candidate for the position. He had even made it to the top three finalists. But the Sushil Koirala-led government had picked Koirala’s financial advisor Nepal for the position.
Six months after his retirement, the government picked Adhikari for the chief executive officer of Investment Board Nepal. He is leading the board authorised to manage big development projects with foreign investments until today. His term in the IBN was due to expire this June.
Adhikari is a chartered accountant by training, but he enriched his knowledge and proved himself to be an expert in monetary economics, international finance and banking regulations during his career in the central bank. He is considered a leader in the field of banking regulations.
