By Peter OBIORA investadvocate

Jan 10 2011 15.12 GMT

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) will be resuming office April 2011 or before that date.

 

Emmanuel Ikazoboh, the Interim Administrator of the NSE made this affirmation Monday January 10 2011 at the Stock Exchange House in Lagos Nigeria.

 

“We would try to meet the April 2011 deadline for the new Executive team to be in place” he said.

 

According to Ikazoboh, the process of the selection of a new CEO for the NSE started September 2010, and the Council of the Nigeria’s Exchange wanted to ensure a thorough, auditable, efficient and transparent process in determining the next CEO of the Exchange.

 

“We had a Selection Committee that reviewed all the over 1,600 applications for the core positions; which was properly reviewed by the Selection Committee made up of people from outside the Exchange, we chose from the Lagos Business School, the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Institute of Personnel Management and Accenture” he said.

 

He affirmed that this Committee selected people they thought are good enough to be the CEO or EDs of the Exchange.

 

Ikazoboh further affirmed that a Selection Committee was subsequently put in place by Council of the Exchange; who interviewed all the candidates and came out with a list of three persons for the CEO position and for each of the other positions. “However, we were not able to get sufficient numbers of two of the EDs positions” he said.

 

The Interim Administrator said that for the CEO’s position, the three candidates shortlisted had to face the Council of the NSE, and each made a presentation to them and it was based on the presentations that one out of the three was selected.

 

“In accordance, with the rules agreed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the name of the candidate selected by the NSE’s Council would be sent to them for final approval. I must say that the Council unanimously selected one out of the three and that name was sent to SEC” he said.

 

According to Ikazoboh, what the Commission is waiting for is that the NSE should complete the other processes so that they can approve all the names at the same time before making same public. “It is because of the weather situation in the United Kingdom (UK) and United State (US) in December 2010, that some of the candidates based in these places could not fly in; fortunately, for the CEO, all the three were available, which was the reason we completed that” Ikazoboh affirmed.

 

The Interim Administration said that for the other positions, they would continue this month, “we are calling people both locally and globally; Nigerians wherever they are, we want the best for the Exchange” he said.     

 

As earlier reported by investadvocate, Ikazoboh had affirmed while reacting to a question on the status update on the selection process that a substantive CEO of the Nigeria’s Exchange may be appointed before the end of December 2010.

“The selection process is on, but we will definitely get someone before the end of December 2010”. Ikazoboh said.

Again prior to this time, Accenture had confirmed that 944 candidates applied for the four positions these include that of the CEO, and three Executive Directors (EDs). The firm affirmed that 131 applied for the post of CEO and about 813 applied for the EDs positions.

 

investadvocate exclusively reported on its Capital Market news website Friday December 24 2010 that  Oscar Onyeama would emerge as the new and substantive CEO/Director General (CEO/DG) of the Nigeria’s Exchange; following a rigorous selection process.

Those short-listed were Yvonne Ike, a lady that formerly worked with JP Morgan in the United States (US), Oscar Onyeama who is said to be working with the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in the US and Bola Onadele, the CEO of Datanet Limited.

 

Onyeama was part of the 131 that applied, which was scaled down to to eight and eventually interviewed by a recruitment panel which involved  the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Accenture, a Council Member of the NSE and Ikazoboh, Interim Administrator of the Nigeria’s Exchange.

Apart from working with AMEX, has also worked in a number of Financial Institutions both home and abroad.

It was gathered that the key attributes used in the selection process was based on integrity, good corporate governance, entrepreneurship prowess and ability to manage stakeholders.

On August 04 2010 Prof. (Mrs.) Okereke Onyiuke erstwhile DG of the Nigeria’s Exchange was removed from office over allegations of financial mismanagement, insolvency of the NSE during her administration and poor corporate governance.