By Ayodele Aminu, Dec 06 2010

The long-awaited search for a substantive Chief Executive Officer for the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has drawn to a close as the recruitment panel saddled with such responsibility has shortlisted three names for the plum job.

The short-listed candidates are Mr. Bola “Koko” Onadele (CEO, Datanet Ltd), Mrs. Yvonne Ike (a former staff of JP Morgan in the US) and Mr Oscar Onyeama, who is said to be working in one of the Exchanges in the US.

The trio were part of the 600 that applied, which was trimmed to eight and interviewed by the recruitment panel which comprised the Chief Executive Officer of ARM, Deji Ali; a representative from Accenture, Dipo Faulkner; a business development director of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Geoff Musekiwa; an NSE council member, Bello Macido, and the interim administrator, Mr. Emmanuel Ikazoboh.

Onadele, who runs a financial market consultancy firm that focuses on analytics and advocacy, is a chartered accountant and an investment banker with over 16 years experience.

He also has a robust exposure to financial markets. Known as “Koko” in the Nigerian financial industry having worked with First City Monument Bank Plc and a host of other financial institutions, he is said to have structured some landmark transactions in the last five years.

Ike, a Senior Adviser to the African Gifted Foundation, is a senior investment banker and until 2009 was a Managing Director at JP Morgan Chase, one of the world’s biggest financial services institutions, where she was Head of Investment Banking for West Africa.

Prior to that, she worked at Lehman Brothers. She is an Ernst and Young trained Chartered Accountant and holds a BSc in Economics. She is involved in a range of charities including The Princes Trust Women’s Leadership Council, Children in Crisis and AMREF. She also serves on several boards.

Not much could be gathered about Onyeama, who is also abroad.  Apart from working in one of the exchanges abroad, he is also said to be highly competent for the plum job having worked in a number of financial institutions at home and abroad.

The key attributes that were used in the selection of the trio, according to sources at the NSE, are entrepreneurship spirit and ability to manage stakeholders as well as capability to improve the visibility, integrity, governance and liquidity of the exchange.

A source at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the NSE council, which had already forwarded the names of the candidates to the commission, is “hopeful that the council would conclude its work as soon as possible and make a final recommendation to SEC for ratification”.

The final selection process, according to the source, is expected to be completed on or before February next year. It had been earlier reported that the applications were re-opened for fresh candidates due to complaints by those who did not apply at the initial time.

“There were complaints that many people with credible experience did not apply because they believed the process would not be transparent. Now that they are sure that it would be transparent and credible, most of them want to be given the chance to apply. To avoid being accused of accepting applications through the back door, it was decided by the council to open it to everyone except those who had previously applied. Every candidate will be screened using the same process,” a source close to the screening committee had said.

Sources had also said that despite the extension, the target time of early next year for the resumption of a new CEO for the NSE remained unchanged.

Before the applications were re-opened late September to earlier October, 944 candidates were said to have applied for the posts of CEO and three Executive Directors (ED) last July.

About 131 candidates had earlier applied for the position of CEO, while 813 applied for the positions of three EDs.

SEC had directed that   the recruitment exercise must follow a credible and transparent process through an open advertisement, conduct of a screening process and panel interviews.

“The exchange would then send the three topmost candidates to the commission for screening,”   the commission said.

Former Director General of the NSE, Prof.  Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, was

removed from office  by SEC on August 4 this year over allegation of poor corporate,   governance, financial mismanagement and insolvency of the exchange during  her administration.

While some market operators believed that SEC acted within its power by  intervening to appoint a new interim  administrator and remove the former DG,  others are of the view that  investigation ought to have been carried out on  the allegations before her removal.

 

Source: Thisday