LAGOS, Nigeria—Two top Nigerian stock-exchange officials were removed and a fugitive former bank executive surrendered, as efforts to clean up the financial sector accelerate.

These developments, together with an expected cabinet reshuffle by President Goodluck Jonathan, come just months before January presidential elections. Mr. Jonathan’s effort to project a cleaner government is considered a centerpiece of his election platform—though he has yet to officially declare his candidacy—and a former head of the country’s financial crimes watchdog is expected to run against him.

On Thursday, Nigeria’s Securities Exchange Commission named Emmanuel Ikazoboh, a former chief executive of accounting firm Deloitte in West and Central Africa, as interim stock-exchange head.

The appointment comes a day after a shakeout at Nigeria’s Stock Exchange, Africa’s second largest. Stock Exchange Director-General Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke was fired and the exchange’s president, Aliko Dangote, was suspended. Mr. Dangote, head of a business conglomerate, is one of Nigeria’s richest men.

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BY NGUYEN ANH THU IN VIETNAM, DARCY CROWE IN VENEZUELA, AND WILL CONNORS IN NIGERIA

The U.S. dollar, once universally accepted as the world’s strongest currency, has been trounced in recent months by everything from the euro to the Brazilian real to the South Korean won. But in the back-alley markets where business is done in many of the world’s developing economies, the dollar still reigns.

In jewelry stores in Vietnam, taxicabs in Venezuela and outdoor markets in Nigeria, black-market money-changers say the dollar is still the currency of choice, even though its value has fallen in some cases.

“The U.S. dollar is losing value, but not here in Vietnam,” said Vu Manh Quynh, a…

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By WILL CONNORS

ABUJA, Nigeria – A number of foreign banks, including four South African institutions and a British firm, have expressed interest in buying into Nigeria’s troubled banks, said central bank chief Lamido Sanusi.

In August, Mr. Sanusi orchestrated a $2.6 billion bailout of five Nigerian banks, which the central bank said were teetering because of mismanagement and underperforming loans. Four additional banks were bailed out this month, with an additional cash injection of $1.3 billion.

Mr. Sanusi has suggested he’d try to find domestic and foreign investors for the troubled banks. In an interview Thursday, Mr. Sanusi said he expected a number of healthier Nigerian banks to express interest in stakes, probably with foreign partners.

He said, however, that the central bank wasn’t inclined to have any one bank attain more than a 20% market share in Nigeria’s domestic banking sector. He said the central bank would likely step in to prevent a deal that would create a combined bank with a greater market share.

“I would probably stop it,” he said.

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LAGOS, Nigeria — One of Africa’s richest men and Nigeria’s only billionaire, Aliko Dangote, said Thursday that a list of debtors published by the Central Bank that cited him as owing millions of dollars to two banks was inaccurate, and he chastised the Central Bank for not alerting the affected parties before the list was made public.

“I don’t think they understand the consequences of what they’ve done,” Dangote said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires Thursday evening. “The Central Bank should have at least checked with people before going to press.”

In the list of debtors published Wednesday, Dangote Industries Ltd. was cited as owing bailed-out Oceanic Bank International (Nigeria) Ltd. (NIG.LA) 2.5 billion naira ($16 million). The list also cited a company called Dansa Oil & Gas Ltd., of which it said Dangote was a stakeholder, as owing bailed-out Intercontinental Bank NGN8.8 billion ($56 million).

“For [the Oceanic Bank] debt we’ve sent a check to the bank, and they’ve collected it and given us a receipt that they have it,” Dangote said. “For a group like ours, two and a half billion naira, that is actually just about 10% of our cement turnover per month. We’re a well-diversified organization.”

A Dangote official said later that Dangote Industries Ltd. had recently paid Oceanic Bank NGN 3.1 billion for its debt and other fees.  They did not say when they had paid off the debt.

An official at Oceanic Bank declined to comment, saying the bank didn’t discuss customers’ accounts.

A senior government official affiliated with the Central Bank admitted that there may have been mistakes in the debtors list released Wednesday, and that since it was for debts not paid through the end of May, some debtors may have settled their loans in the interim.