September 23, 2011
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Thursday inaugurated a technical committee on the demutualisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The Chairman, SEC, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, who inducted members of the committee in Lagos, emphasised that it (committee) was expected to advise the Commission on the demutualisation of the Exchange.
Udoma said that the 21-member committee would be chaired by Mr. Asuerinme Ighodalo. Some other members include the Dean of Lagos Business School, Enase Okonedo, and the Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, among others.
Udoma recalled that at the inauguration of the current board of the Commission, the board members had pledged to make the Nigerian Capital Market more internationally competitive.
He explained: “A number of measures were put in place by the Commission including the setting up of two committees: one to review the structure of the market under Mr. Dotun Sulaiman, and the second to review the Code of Corporate Governance for public companies under Mr. A.B. Mahmoud SAN. The recommendations of the two committees have since been largely implemented.
“In particular, a new Code of Corporate Governance for public companies has been issued by the Commission. It became effective on April 1, 2011.
Also in furtherance of the implementation of the Market Structure Committee report, a number of new rules have been issued and existing rules amended. All these are being compiled by SEC in a single document for ease of reference.
“The Commission has also been taking steps to improve the governance structure of the NSE and to ensure that capital market operations are conducted in accordance with the highest global standards. An illustration of this was the highly transparent process, conducted by the Council of the Exchange, in line with the directives of the Commission, for the appointment of the new executive management team of the Exchange,” he added.
Following that, Udoma stressed that the next challenge in improving governance of the Exchange was that of ensuring that the Exchange was demutualised by a process that is in sync with the best global standards.
“This must be a process that ensures fairness and openness, as well as the protection of the national interest. It is to assist the Commission to achieve this that the Securities and Exchange Commission is today inaugurating a Technical Committee to examine the processes for achieving demutualisation and make recommendations to the Commission on how it can best discharge its important supervisory role.
Some of the terms of reference given to the committee which has three months to complete its work, according to Udoma, were to review the current structure and ownership of the NSE, examine regulatory, ownership, management, operational, governance and financial issues in demutualisation of exchanges, review various demutualisation models and experience including valuation model for demutualisation, amongst others.
Source : Thisday