By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigerian Senate on Wednesday confirmed Mounir Gwarzo as the new director general (DG) of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
A statement by Yakubu Olaleye, head of media of SEC said the upper legislative chamber of the Nigerian National Assembly (NASS) at plenary on Wednesday confirmed the nomination of Gwarzo as the DG of the Commission.
SEC disclosed that Gwarzo’s confirmation came by a unanimous decision after the consideration of the screening report of the senate committee on Capital Market headed by Senator Ayo Adeseun which affirmed Gwarzo as the best candidate for the position.
“Thereafter, some members of senate including the three senators from Kano State (Gwarzo’s state of origin), Senators Bello Dalhatu Gwarzo, Kabiru Gaya and Bashir Garba Lado also spoke in favour of confirmation of the new DG of SEC,” the statement added.
It was also disclosed that Victor Ndoma-Egba, senate leader and Ganiyu Solomon a former chairman of the senate committee on Capital Market openly supported Gwarzo’s nomination before David Mark; senate president put the motion for his confirmation before colleagues which was unanimously supported without a single opposition.
Mark while commenting on the development described Gwarzo as ‘’a round peg in a round hole’’ and expressed the hope that he would bring his experience to bear on the job.
The newly confirmed DG of SEC is a fellow of Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), was born 52 years ago in Kano. He attended Bayero University, Kano and graduated with Bachelors Degree in Economics in 1987. He later went to the University of Birmingham in United Kingdom where he did his Post Graduate course in Development Finance in 1991. He was trained as a Stockbroker and qualified as an associate member; Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) and in 2005 became a fellow of the Institute.
According to SEC, Gwarzo’s working career spans a period of 25 years in various organisations namely; Ministry of Trade, Kano State, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Century Merchant Bank Limited, Empire Securities Limited, The Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and MTL Global Investment Limited, prior to joining the board of SEC.
Also, he had the unique opportunity of working as an operator and regulator in both the primary and secondary markets of the Nigerian Capital Market, and out of his 25 years working experience, 20 were spent in The Nigerian Capital Market.
Gwarzo attended several courses both home and abroad among which are; The Securities Market Regulation which is the leading training program in securities regulation in the world by The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Development of Bonds Markets in Johannesburg, South Africa, Assets Backed Securities and Mortgage Securitization in Singapore, Operational and Credit Risk Management in Dubai and Advanced Management Programs (AMPS) at INSEAD (The Premier Management Institute in Europe), Paris as well as at SAID Business School Templeton College, University of Oxford, UK.
On January 15, he took over the helms of affairs at the Commission as acting DG following Arunma Oteh’s exit after her mandatory five (5) year tenure.
