| Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday it was sacking the director-general of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and suspending its president over governance concerns.
It said it had taken the action following concerns about inadequate oversight, ongoing litigation, allegations of financial mismanagement, governance challenges and delays in implementing a succession plan for the exchange’s leadership. The SEC said in a statement that NSE Director-General Ndi Okereke-Onyuike, who had been due to retire later this year, would be removed immediately and that an interim administration would be announced before the market opened on Thursday. It said NSE President Aliko Dangote had been elected in defiance of a court order, along with several other members of the NSE governing council, and that all would be suspended pending the outcome of that litigation. “Given the gravity of the allegations around financial mismanagement of the exchange, the commission has also directed the conduct of an independent investigation into the allegations,” the SEC statement said. The move is the latest sign of a more muscled approach from Nigeria’s capital markets regulator since its new chief executive, Arunma Oteh, took office in January pledging tougher penalties to help restore investor confidence. The SEC announced last week it was taking 260 entities and individuals to a special tribunal over alleged market abuse committed in the run-up to a stock market collapse and banking crisis which ended in a $4 billion bailout last year. [ID:nLDE66Q2B8] Okereke-Onyuike, Dangote and other council members could not immediately be reached for comment. |
Aug52010