- Fawzi Bukhzam, an engineer turned banker and Central Bank board member, has been tasked with running the governor’s duties after Naji Issa’s resignation was accepted in principle.
On 22 October 2026, House of Representatives Speaker Al-Salihin Abdulnabi tasked Fawzi Bukhzam with running the Central Bank of Libya after accepting Governor Naji Issa's resignation. Decision No. 5 of 2026 accepted the resignation in principle, and Bukhzam's assignment lasts until the House takes a final decision on it. He took over formally at the bank in Tripoli on Thursday 22 October 2026, under a handover report prepared by a committee formed by the House presidency.
Bukhzam was born in Wadi al-Shati, southern Libya, in September 1965. He is an engineer and technologist by training who moved into banking and spent much of his career in payments and financial technology.
Bukhzam is a member of the Central Bank of Libya's board of directors, having been approved by the House presidency as part of a new board line-up. He previously directed the bank's Payments and Settlements Department and Libya's electronic payment project. He is director general of the Maghrebi Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade, a board member of Union Bank in Jordan, where he represents the Libyan Foreign Investment Company, and a director of ABC International Bank plc in the UK.
He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Benghazi, a master's degree in software engineering from Acadia University in Canada, and a doctorate in software engineering from the University of New Brunswick in Canada. He is also a member of the teaching staff at Sebha University.
Bukhzam takes over at a sensitive moment. Issa took office in October 2024, and his tenure saw two official devaluations of the Libyan dinar amid pressure on public finances and the foreign exchange market. Bukhzam faces a liquidity crisis, weaker purchasing power and pressure from the parallel market. The move is also contested: the High Council of State has rejected the House presidency's step as unilateral.