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The Nigerian Stock
Exchange (NSE) has reiterated that the newly appointed Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) and executive directors “will assume duties no later than
April 1st.”

The Board of the
Securities and Exchange Commission, the market regulator, had on
Tuesday ratified the selection of Oscar Onyema as the new CEO of the
NSE and Ade Bajomo as executive director, IT and Market Operations.

The commission,
however, urged the Exchange council to conclude the executive selection
process for the other two positions, executive directors for Strategy
& Business Development and Quotations and Listings.

“The interim
administrator said whoever is appointed will resume latest April 1st
and I don’t think he has said anything in contrary to that,” Wole
Tokede, the NSE spokesperson, reaffirmed.

Also, Emmanuel
Ikazoboh, the Exchange interim administrator, said last week that the
remaining two positions could not be competed “because of the weather
situation in UK and in US in December” which affected some of the
candidates in those places from flying in to the country.

“Fortunately for
the CEO position, all the three selected candidates were around and
that was how we completed that,” Mr. Ikhazoboh said, adding that the
interview for other positions would continue this month.

He said the
recruitment process, which saw over 1,600 applications for all the four
positions, is longer than expected because “we (NSE) wanted to ensure
that we have a thorough, auditable, efficient, and transparent process
in determining who would be the next executive officers” at the
Exchange.

Meanwhile, while
investors at the nation’s capital market continue to record additional
gains on their equities’ value, as market capitalisation gained N87
billion at the close of Thursday’s trading, the NSE has assured
investors who are clients of the stockbroking firms it suspended of
safety of their investments.

The Exchange on
Tuesday suspended 61 dealing member firms for failure to meet up with
the N70 million minimum capital base. Between Tuesday and Thursday,
five of them had met the requirement and their suspension subsequently
lifted.

Mr. Tokede, in a
statement on yesterday, said, “Mr. Ikazoboh dismissed the allegation by
some of the affected stockbroking firms that the Exchange did not give
them enough time to beef up their capital base before suspending them.
He described the allegation as baseless.”

On the security of
clients’ investment, he said that the Exchange on January 18, 2011
issued a circular to remind all suspended Dealing Members Firms of
their duty to instruct and appoint another stockbroker to carry out the
mandate they had got from their clients prior to their suspension.