Gwarzo takes over from Arunma Oteh as Actg. DG of the SEC Nigeria

Erstwhile Executive Commissioner, Operations in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC Nigeria), Mr. Mounir H. Gwarzo has taken over from outgoing Director General of the Commission, Ms. Arunma Oteh as the Acting DG.

This was announced by Oteh at a formal handover ceremony in the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, Monday.

Oteh while handing over to Gwarzo, described her five year tenure at the Commission as absolutely outstanding attributing it to the co-operation she received from every member of staff.

She said “When I joined SEC in January 2010, I was absolutely certain about why the SEC was important and what it’s role and what the agenda was. I was able to articulate it in one phrase “building a world class market.”

“To have a vision and have everyone being able to connect and align around it for me whether it is capital market operators, shareholders and other stakeholders for me was very rewarding. But I don’t think it would have been possible without each and every one of you accepting the challenge to try something in a different way or to do something in a way that you are not quite sure of.”  

She said that what the commission has been able to achieve in summary is to lay a foundation for the nation to see a capital market that will help tackle its infrastructure challenges; that will help people who are setting up businesses, who own businesses raise millions of naira in capital.

“Our aim is to build a meritocracy so that it is the viable businesses that get funded, not necessarily the ones that have connections so that we can also tackle some of what we are seeing in our world today, whether it is security challenges we face or the security challenges that everybody faces. My view is that one of the things that will address it is if people can feel that they are included, that they have economic access; that they can create wealth, that the income inequalities that we see around us can be addressed. And I believe that the capital market is the answer and what we have done in the last five years is to lay a foundation; there is still a lot of work to be done” Oteh said.

She therefore appealed to staff to continue to work hard and support the leadership to ensure that the brand that has been built is not eroded.

The Acting DG, Gwarzo was born 50 years ago in Kano and attended Bayero University, Kano and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Economics in 1987.  In 1991, he proceeded to the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom where he obtained a Post Graduate Degree in Development Finance.  Mr. Gwarzo is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers; in 2005 he became a Fellow of the Institute.

He has played roles the in Nigerian Capital Market as an operator and as a regulator.   This is evident from the caliber of institutions he has served in during his working career that spans a period of Twenty-Five (25) years. The institutions include Ministry of Trade, Kano State; Nigerian Stock Exchange, Century Merchant Bank Limited, Empire Securities Limited, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and MTL Global Investment Limited.

Gwarzo has been a participant in several courses both at home and abroad, some of which are: The Securities Market Regulation which is the leading training program in securities regulation in the world by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; Development of Bonds Markets in Johannesburg, South Africa; Asset Backed Securities and Mortgage Securitization in Singapore; Operational and Credit Risk Management in Dubai; and Advanced Management Programs (AMPS) at INSEAD (The Premier Management Institute in Europe), Paris as well as at the SAID Business School, Templeton College, University of Oxford, UK.

He is happily married and widely traveled.

Oteh’s tour – of - duty as Director General of the SEC Nigeria will be remembered for its passion, purpose, articulation and faithful implementation of a therapy of reform measures driven by the vision to transform the Nigerian market into world class market.  She was in a hurry to see Nigeria achieve a world class capital market that would drive development and make Nigeria one of the most attractive investment destination.