Senate confirms Gwarzo as SEC DG

Nigeria’s upper legis­lative chamber, the Senate, has unani­mously confirmed the nom­ination of Mallam Mounir Haliru Gwarzo as the Di­rector General of the Secu­rities and Exchange Com­mission (SEC) at plenary on Wednesday, May 13, 2015.

The confirmation by unani­mous decision followed con­sideration of the screening re­port of the Senate Committee on Capital Market headed by Senator Ayo Adeseun, which affirmed Gwarzo as the best candidate for the position. The committee had earlier screened Gwarzo and ex­pressed its satisfaction with his nomination and therefore called on the whole house to confirm his nomination by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Thereafter, some members of Senate, including the three senators from Kano State (Gwarzo’s state of origin), Senators Bello Dalhatu Gwar­zo, Kabiru Gaya and Bashir Garba Lado, also spoke in favour of confirmation of the new DG of SEC.

Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, and a former Chairman of the Sen­ate Committee on Capital Market, Senator Ganiyu Solo­mon, from Lagos, also sup­ported his nomination before the Senate President, Senator David Mark, put the motion for his confirmation before his colleagues. The motion was then unanimously supported without a single opposition. In his comment, Senator Mark described Gwarzo as “a round peg in a round hole” and expressed the hope that he would bring his experience to bear on the job.

A fellow of Chartered In­stitute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Gwarzo was born 52 years ago in Kano. He attended Bayero University, Kano and graduated with Bachelors De­gree in Economics in 1987. He later went to the Univer­sity of Birmingham in United Kingdom where he did his Post-Graduate course in De­velopment Finance in 1991. He was trained as a stockbro­ker and qualified as an Asso­ciate member, Chartered In­stitute of Stockbrokers (CIS) and in 2005 became a fellow of the institute.

His working career spans a period of 25 years in various organisations namely, Min­istry of Trade, Kano State, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Century Merchant Bank Limited, Empire Secu­rities Limited, The Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and MTL Global In­vestment Limited, prior to joining the board of SEC.