Nigeria

Nigeria: SEC Names Oscar Onyeama New NSE DG
BY ISAAC AIMURIE AND CHRIS UGWU IN LAGOS, 20 JANUARY 2011

Abuja — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday announced the confirmation of Mr. Oscar Onyema as the new Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The apex regulatory authority also announced the appointment of Mr. Ade Bajomo asExecutive Director, IT and Market Operations.

The confirmation of the two top appointees follow the NSE's conveyance of the unanimous decision of its Council to appoint Onyema and Bajomo as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, in December 2010 and January 2011 respectively.

The Commission said yesterday in the statement of endorsement of the two top appointees signed by its Head ofMedia, Mr. Lanre Oloyi, that it was extremely pleased with the rigorous and transparent executive selection process implemented by the Council and Interim Administrator of the NSE, Mr Emmanuel Ikazoboh which led to the emergence of the CEO and ED, IT.

It urged the NSE Council to conclude the executive selection process with the appointment of the additional Executive Directors for Strategy &Business Development and Listings.

Mr. Onyema, holds a B.Sc Computer Engineering degree frm Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria and an MBA in Finance and Investments, Ziklin School of Business, Baruch College, New York.

He was a Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer with the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), a position he retained after AMEX was acquired by NYSE to formthe world's largest Stock Exchange in 2008. He is currently a Council member, Gerson Lehrman Group, Austin, Texas, and also a member of the Security Traders Association of New York and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).

Mr. Ade Bajomo, is head, IT programmes and Business Transformation, Africa and Indian Ocean, Barclays Bank, United Kingdom. He holds a B.Sc degree inEngineering frm University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, an M.Sc with distinction in Information Systems and an MBA frm South Bank University, and City University (CASS) Business School, London respectively.

He has over 23 years experience in Information Technology and Business Aligned Transformations having worked at various times in South Bank University, Deutsche Bank, GeneraleBank, Fortis Bank and Pearl Insurance Group, UK.

The Commission also said it was optimistic that Messrs Onyeama and Bajomo would bring their wealth of experience and expertise to bear in transforming the NSE into a world class Exchange.

While sending the names of its short-listed candidates to the apex regulator, the Exchange had disclosed that it expected new executive appointees of the NSE toassume duties no later than 1 April 2011.

Onyeama had beaten two others - Yvonne Ike, a former staff of JP Morgan in the United States and Bola Onadele, the CEO of Datanet Limited - following a rigorous selection process.

He is replacing Dr. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke who was removed frm office on August 4, 2010 over allegations of mismanagement. The Nigerian Stock Exchange said on Friday that ithad completed a part of the multi-stage process for the selection of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Exchange and the name of the recommended candidate forwarded to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for approval.

Accenture Nigeria, which was contracted to handle the selection process, had confirmed that 944 candidates applied for the four positions. These included that of theCEO and three Executive Directors (EDs). The firm affirmed that 131 applied for the post of CEO and about 813 applied for the EDs position



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