From left: Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Arunma Oteh; Interim Administrator, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Emmanuel Ikazoboh and President, Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers, Mr. Mike Itegboje, at a news briefing on the new admistration of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE in Lagos.

By Peter Egwuatu & Michael Eboh
LAGOS—SECURITIES and Exchange Commission, SEC, yesterday, named Emmanuel Ikazobo as the interim Director General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to replace  Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke who was fired, Wednesday, in what the regulator described as move aimed at boosting confidence and reinforcing the “integrity” of the market.

Ikazoboh, until yesterday, was a former senior partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP’s West and Central African unit and now the Executive Chairman at Hedonmark Management Services Ltd, currently a Global Client Service Partner for Africa Regional Operations of Deloitte & Touche (Akintola Williams Deloitte).

He was named administrator of the stock exchange, after Ndi Okereke_Onyiuke was removed as Director General and Chief Executive Officer after over 10 years in office.

SEC also sacked the entire Council of the NSE and appointed Mr Ballama Manu its interim President.

The interim management of the council was mandated to complete the transformation of the Stock Exchange and to appoint a substantive director general. They were also tasked to investigate the allegation by the former President of the council, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, against the sacked DG and to proffer solution and remedy.

An influential operator in the market and Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, said:“An intervention was inevitable and imperative, not to indict anybody but to protect the market from drift.

There was a need to draw a line and restore market confidence.”

Debt crisis

The Exchange’s All Share Index, which rallied 24 percent this year to become one of the 10 best performers among 93 indexes tracked by Bloomberg globally, is still down more than 60 per cent from a March 2008 high. The measure fell following a debt crisis caused by investors borrowing to buy stocks before the price crash forced a bailout of some of the nation’s banks.

SEC said in a statement that there was need to address “inadequate oversight of the exchange, ongoing litigation, allegations of financial mismanagement, governance challenges, and the inordinate delays in the implementation of the succession plan” at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Okereke_Onyiuke was due to retire in November.
SEC also ordered billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote, the NSE’s President, and Council members elected against a court order, to “cease acting” in their roles pending the outcome of ongoing litigation.

It will be recalled that in March, a court nullified the election of Dangote as president of the exchange, saying it contravened an existing court order that forbade the vote until a suit challenging his eligibility was determined.
Allegations of “financial mismanagement”of the exchange will also be investigated, the SEC said.

Okereke_Onyiuke couldn’t be reached in her office for a comment, and Joseph Okonmah, spokesman for Dangote, couldn’t also be reached for comments as his mobile phone was switched off.

Samir Gadio, an emerging_markets strategist at Standard Bank Group Ltd.’s London office was quoted as saying that Okereke_Onyiuke’s removal “was expected to some extent,” and that “there were clearly issues there in terms of transparency, poor governance and supervision.”

Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange was delayed because of a technical issue, with the market closing at 4:33 p.m. in Lagos, the Exchange said.

Vanguard, however, learnt that Okereke-Onyiuke had concluded plans to head to the courts to challenge her removal by SEC.

Briefing the media on developments at the NSE and the introduction of the interim Director-General and Council Head, Ms Arunma Oteh, Director-General, SEC, confirmed that the NSE had not submitted to the commission, its 2009 financial statement and accounts, adding that the succession plan of the NSE was also breached by Okereke-Onyiuke.

She further expressed confidence that the new appointees would bring their wealth of experience to bear in addressing the governance concerns and allegations of mismanagement levelled against the NSE.

She said: “The wealth of knowledge and experience he brings to the post will enable him to manage the affairs of the exchange until the assumption of the substantive director general.

“The interim period will be of a limited duration and a succession plan is currently being put in place to find a new Director-General for the NSE.”

Also speaking, Ikazoboh promised to pursue a four-point agenda, which include ensuring that the downward trend in the market was halted; restoration of the integrity of the NSE and the capital market; placing the finance and administrative functions of the NSE in proper shape; and the pursuit of the transformation agenda until the emergence of a new Director-General and attainment of a world class capital market.
SEC, EFCC storm Lagos floor of the NSE

Meanwhile, a mild drama was recorded on the Lagos trading floor of the NSE, as officials of SEC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, accompanied by a number of mobile police officers and plain clothes security operatives were on hand  to enforce the sack.

A source at the NSE informed Vanguard that activities on the floor commenced about a few minutes to seven.
Also, a hitch was recorded in trading, as the trading engine of the NSE collapsed after about 30 minutes into trading. Trading later commenced at about 4.00 p.m, after efforts to rectify the fault were successful.

In a reaction, Chief Responsibility Officer, Value Investing Nigeria,  Mr. Seye Adetunmbi, said:  “NSE is a big institution that thrives on public trust, investors’ confidence and goodwill of the national economy.

“In view of the aforementioned and by virtue of the orientation and statutory functions to the investing public and quoted companies; NSE is indisputably a public institution. By implication, it makes the Stock Exchange to be bigger than individuals.

“Thus, if anybody raises justifiable issues on the management of the stock exchange, it should give every well meaning stakeholder concern. Now that SEC the apex regulatory body had stepped_in to arrest aberration and uncomplimentary drifts that had been long due; it is commendable.

“The good thing is that NSE is being given a unique opportunity to revisit all fundamental things that have be wrong with the structure of the exchange, compostion of the council and inject fresh ideas capable of re_engineering and boost the dwindling operators and investors confidence in the market.”

A stockbroker who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “To protect the market from crisis of confidence forced on it by the feud and ensure independent investigations of the allegations, SEC has justification in removing her forthwith and appointing an interim administrator since she failed to put a credible succession programme in place one month to her exit.

“With the appointment of a new head of Council by SEC coming up shortly, it is expected that normalcy will be restored to the affairs of the Stock Exchange in due course.”