Nigeria Content Online

Since the sack of
Ndi Okereke-Onyuike as the Director General of the Nigerian Stock
Exchange (NSE) by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the
search of the new head seems been fruitless, even after set deadlines.

After the initial
October 12th deadline for the post, Accenture Nigeria, the firm
conducting SEC’s recruitment exercise, continued to place advert for
the offices of the NSE chief executive officer and three executive
directors. “The NSE is transforming to increase the depth of Nigeria’s
capital market and improve access to liquidity for listed
organisations. To provide leadership for its transformation program,
the NSE is seeking to recruit qualified and experienced executives to
be its future,” a paid advertorial published on October 13th in some
national dailies, said. However, the same advert categorically stated
that “the closing date for applications is 12th October, 2010.
Applications will not be received after 5:00 pm Nigerian time (GMT +1)
on this date.”

Nobody is certain

In the meantime,
while the NSE’s spokesperson, Sola Oni, said he was not aware of any
extension of the recruitment, Accenture could not confirm if the
deadline was extended. The head of Corporate Communication Department
at Accenture, who refused to give his name, said, “It (the advert)
could probably be a mistake. The date remains closed. But I don’t know
the cause of the last advert and I can’t be on record over something I
have no power on.”

Meanwhile, Mr Oni
said, “I don’t know what actually happened whether the last publication
was a mistake on the people handling the recruitment exercise. In fact
I cannot explain what happened since the Exchange is not the one
placing those adverts. Accenture is the firm handling the recruitment.
But if there is anything I can find out I’ll let you know. I still want
to believe it was a mix-up. The deadline remains October 12th. There is
no further extension. People should ignore the last adverts since it’s
likely to be a mistake. Even the published advert still maintained the
correct date of closure for applications to show that it expires on
October 12th at 5:00 pm.”

Wasting money

Lanre Oloyi, the
spokesperson for SEC, said the commission is not in the best position
to talk on the matter. “Talk to the NSE,” he said. “They should tell
you if it was a mistake or there is an extension.” However, the last
time the deadline was extended, SEC gave the approval. A finance
analyst at Resource Cap, a portfolio management firm, who did not wish
to be named, said the last publication should be categorised “wastage
funds since the advert according to the advertiser is not intended to
woo applicants again.” “Definitely, millions of naira would have been
spent on those unnecessary ads. Accenture too must be accountable for
all the expenses carried out during the recruitment. You cannot say
because money has been billed for a project, then it must be spent
unjustifiably,” he said.

The SEC had accused
the previous management of the NSE of slowing down the succession plan.
It recently said in a statement that “the commission had previously
asked the NSE to develop and implement a credible and transparent
succession plan and while the NSE had made significant progress, it had
unfortunately not completed the process by the deadline of 31st of July
approved by the commission despite an extension of the deadline.”

Hundreds apply

The commission said
it is certain that the succession process “can be concluded quickly,”
adding that the SEC has contracted Accenture to facilitate the
selection exercise. “Accenture has confirmed that 944 candidates
applied for the four positions, including that of the CEO of the
Exchange. 131 applied for the post of CEO and the rest applied for the
positions of executive director (Listings), executive director (IT and
market Operations), and executive director (Strategy, and Business
Developments),” it stated.

Meanwhile, against requests by some market operators that Mr
Ikazoboh should declare specific date when his tenure would expire, the
substantive CEO said he is not sure of the duration of his tenure. At a
media briefing recently, he said, “How long my tenure will take, I
cannot clearly say right now; but I can only say that the process has
started for the selection of a new DG.”