Osita Nwanisobi, CBN director of corporate communications, disclosed this on Friday.
According to Nwanisobi, the apex bank was notified of the resignation of Babalola as chairman of the company against the backdrop of contest by some significant shareholders for control of First Bank Holding PLC.
The CBN spokesman thank Babalola for his services and acknowledged the strides recorded by the company under his watch.
Abdullahi, the new chairman, is an economist with long years of experience in the academia, banking supervision and financial regulation, and he retired as director of banking supervision, CBN in February 2020.
He is also an expert in bank crisis resolution, and also serves on the boards of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), FMDQ, NDIC and AMCON.