# Libya’s Central Bank Power Struggle Escalates, Threatening Oil Revenues and Wage Payments

*Wednesday, October 28, 2026 at 2:09 PM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-10-28T14:09:19.368Z (2h ago)
**Category**: geopolitics | **Region**: Africa
**Importance**: 7/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/21797.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: Rival authorities in Tripoli and Tobruk are intensifying a fight over leadership of the Central Bank of Libya and control of billions in oil revenue after lawmakers moved to accept governor Naji Issa’s resignation despite his attempt to withdraw it, raising the risk of disrupted salaries, contracts and export income.

Libya is once again locked in a struggle over who controls the state’s main financial nerve centre. Rival authorities in Tripoli and Tobruk are clashing over the leadership of the Central Bank of Libya and, with it, the flow of oil revenues that fund salaries, subsidies and imports.

Central bank governor Naji Issa sits at the heart of the dispute. He submitted his resignation in August 2026, then later tried to withdraw it. The Tobruk‑based House of Representatives has accepted that resignation in principle and is now moving to appoint a replacement. Tripoli rejects this move, setting up competing claims to the same institution and echoing earlier periods when rival factions tried to run parallel central banks.

For Libyans, the risks show up in very practical ways. The central bank channels oil dollars into public sector wage payments, letters of credit for traders and cash supplies for commercial banks. Uncertainty over who is in charge can slow or block salary transfers, complicate access to foreign currency used to buy food and medicine, and shake confidence in a banking system already weakened by years of conflict.

Foreign oil companies and trading houses are also watching the contest. Libya’s crude shipments have been one of the few relatively stable pillars of its fractured economy, at times recovering to more than a million barrels per day. Those exports depend on buyers believing that payments go through a central bank leadership with enough acceptance across Libya’s rival camps. If that perception frays, customers may demand extra legal assurances or hesitate to sign new deals.

Control of the central bank also serves as a lever of political power. The Tripoli‑based Government of National Unity and eastern authorities aligned with the Tobruk parliament both understand that appointing the governor means influencing patronage networks, reconstruction contracts and the way subsidies are distributed. That helps explain why lawmakers in Tobruk moved quickly to confirm Issa’s departure after he sought to reverse it.

The outcome matters beyond Libya’s borders. European governments and neighbouring states fear that renewed institutional fragmentation could cut into oil flows, push up global prices and trigger new instability in a country that already acts as a migration route and a proxy battleground. International financial institutions, which have worked mainly with Tripoli in recent years, prefer to deal with a single, technically credible central bank rather than rival claimants issuing conflicting instructions.

When the central bank becomes a political battleground, the consequences reach every household queuing at cash machines and every tanker loading at Libyan ports. Signals to watch now include whether the Tobruk parliament proceeds unilaterally with naming a new governor, whether Tripoli responds with its own appointment, and how foreign governments and multilateral lenders treat competing claims. Any delay in regular salary disbursements or reports of payment problems at the National Oil Corporation would be early signs that the institutional fight is turning into a wider economic shock.