The governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was yesterday listed among TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. The magazine said Sanusi’s reform in the sector is essential for “Africa’s sleeping giant to finally awaken,” adding that “The story of Nigeria’s first half-century of Independence is a tale of wasted potential: sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous country, home to its biggest oil riches, impoverished by thieving autocrats. A key reason a new Nigeria no longer seems fanciful is Central Bank governor Lamido Sanusi.

Lamido Sanusi:“A veteran of an often corrupt banking industry, Sanusi, 49, took up his position at the height of the financial crisis in June 2009 and immediately turned on his former peers. Lamido Sanusi took over nine banks, sacked the chief executives of eight of them, ordered a series of mergers and named their biggest debtors.”

According to TIME, Lamido Sanusi said he was cleaning up not just banking but all Nigeria. “Sanusi’s will be a long fight and a dangerous one: death threats have obliged him to employ armed guards,” it said.

In its publications, the TIME said meet the most influential people in the world. They are artists and activists, reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry. Their ideas spark dialogue and dissent and sometimes even revolution.

The most influential person for the year is a 30-year-old Wael Ghonim, a Google Executive from Egypt; and the second is Joseph Stiglitz, 68, who chaired President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers and served as the World Bank’s chief economist

The third most influential person for the year is Reed Hastings, a 50-year-old entrepreneur, while Amy Poehler, 39, was ranked fourth.