Destry Becomes Sole Candidate for BI Governor, OJK Chief Comments

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) supports the sole candidacy of Destry Damayanti to become Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), replacing Perry Warjiyo. Chair of the OJK Board of Commissioners Friderica Widyasari Dewi said the OJK supports the decision because Damayanti has a strong track record in the financial sector.

“We very much support Mrs Destry, a figure we already know and whose track record is also very good,” she said when met after the UMKM Finance Summit 2026 event at Hotel Bidakara Jakarta on Tuesday (11/8/2026).

In this regard, the woman familiarly known as Kiki touched on the synergy between OJK and BI in the MSME sector. According to her, cooperation between the two state institutions has so far been very well established, including in MSME development.

“We see that BI has many initiatives to develop MSMEs. And as I said earlier, all institutions, ministries and regulators have many programmes. So now we are looking at how to connect everything,” she explained.

According to her, the MSME sector is not just a programme and initiative between BI and OJK, but has become a national initiative supported by all parties. “Perhaps BI has expertise in curating MSMEs from all over Indonesia, for example,” she said.

In addition, cooperation between the two state institutions also extends to other areas such as credit financing for the MSME sector. “So this is a national initiative that, as we said earlier, in quotation marks, we are tackling together so that it can succeed,” she said.

On the same occasion, Minister of MSMEs Maman Abdurrahman expressed a similar view. According to him, Destry Damayanti is a figure who strongly supports MSME players.

“I think this is a positive breakthrough step because, as far as I understand during my almost two years as Minister of MSMEs, she is one of the figures at BI who is very concerned about MSMEs,” he said.

“That is, concerned about micro, small and medium enterprises, and hopefully she will be blessed with a harmonious and prosperous tenure and that everything goes smoothly,” he concluded.