By Uche Amunike
A new Chairman, Mairiga Aliya Katuka has been announced by President Bola Tinubu, to head the board of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), even as he also announced his approval of the Board of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).
Speaking, through a statement, signed and released by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Friday, in Abuja, he confirmed that the Chairman of the board is Mairiga Aliya Katuka, while members of the board are Mr. Ememotimi Agama- Director-General; Agama is to take over from Mr Lamido Yuguda, who was appointed by President Tinubu’s predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari.
Other board members are: Frana Chukwuogor- Executive Commissioner (Legal and Enforcement); Mrs Samiya Hassan Usman- Executive Commissioner (Corporate Services); Mr Bola Ajomale- Executive Commissioner (Operations); Mr Kasimu Garba Kurfi- (Non-Executive Commissioner) and Mr Lekan Belo- (Non-Executive Commissioner).
According to him, President Tinubu is confident that every member of the Board of the Security and Exchange Commission, chaired by Maraiga Aliyu Katuka, will bring their wealth of experience and competence to help in advancing the core mandate of the commission, which is developing and regulating a capital market.
The statement partly read: ‘The President anticipates that all members of the board of this critical commission will bring to bear, their wealth of experience and competence in advancing the commission’s core mandate of developing and regulating a capital market that is dynamic, fair, transparent, and efficient to bolster investor confidence and contribute immeasurably to the nation’s economic development.’
On NAICOM, he approved the appointment of Ms. Halima Kyari as her Chairperson, with Mr Olusegun Ayo Omosehin as Commissioner for Insurance. Other appointees are Mr. Olawoye Gam-Ikon, who is now the Deputy Commissioner (Technical Operations), with Dr Usman Ankara Jimada, sitting as Deputy Commissioner (Finance and Administration). Others are board members: Mr Adeniyi Olusegun Fabikun; Dr Miriam Kene Kachikwu and Mr Umar Khalifa Mohammed.
The president appealed to policyholders to do their best and improve trust and confidence in the insurance sector.
Meanwhile, SEC has revealed its position concerning the admittance of illicit funds into the capital market, through the fresh banking, recapitalization exercise.
Speaking, on Thursday, during a symposium organized by the Association of Capital Markets Academics of Nigeria, the Executive Director (Operations) of the commission, Dayo Obisan, made this disclosure, stating that SEC has a positive outlook on the banking sector recapitalization exercise, adding that they were motivated to work with stakeholders, in order to achieve a smooth process.
His words: ‘For us at the SEC, it is all positive. The journey has already started. So, beyond the announcement, there are a lot of things that have been happening behind the curtain and will keep happening so that we have a successful and flawless recapitalization exercise that will be borne of experience, towards a more favorable and positive environment.’
He continued: ‘We will continue to learn from some of the things we didn’t do too well and from some of the things we did relatively okay, some of the things we can improve on and some of the things we shouldn’t go near at all.’
He harped on the need to have clean or verifiable money in the system, so as to avoid having laundered money that will make them run around later to cure and assured that it was part of the things they were looking for at the SEC, which also formed part of the considerations for fund verification exercise to the fore.
