Azeema Adam was nominated as governor of the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) today, after the country's president withdrew his initial candidate and selected the central bank's existing chief economist in her place.

The president initially nominated Ibthishama Ahmed Saeed, a local bank executive, to take over from Fazeel Najeeb, who stepped down from the role in January for "personal reasons".

Local media reports say the nomination was poorly received by the public, as people questioned