President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Mr Lamido Yuguda as the new substantive Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The appointment ends the uncertainties around the leadership of the Commission since the suspension of former Director-General, Mr Mounir Gwarzo by former Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun.
The appointment also ends the tenure of the Acting DG, Mary Uduk.
In a letter just read at the Senate yesterday, Buhari requested the upper chamber to consider and approve the nomination of Mr. Lamido Yuguda as SEC DG in line with the requirements of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA).
Also to be confirmed are three nominees as full-time Commissioners for the Commission, including Reginald Karawusa, Ibrahim Boyi and Mr. Obisan Joseph.
The President’s request was contained in a letter read by the Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan, during plenary in Abuja.
Buhari’s letter reads in part: “Pursuant to Section 3 and 5(1) of the Investment and Securities Act 2007, I write to request for confirmation by the Senate, the appointment of the following four nominees as Director General and Commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”
Yuguda is currently on the board of Premium Pension Limited. Before joining Premium Pensions, Yuguda had worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as an economist, and investment manager.
In 1984, Yuguda joined the CBN as Senior Supervisor, Foreign Operations Department where he oversaw Nigeria’s external debt records.
Between1985 and 1997, Yuguda, worked in various departments of the CBN. These include the banking supervision department, the debt conversion committee secretariat and the foreign operations department where he rose through the ranks to become the Senior Manager, Investment Office.
In 1997 he joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, USA as an economist in the Africa Department with the mandate to assess “economic policies and management of balance of payment support programmes of African member countries of the IMF.
After his stint at the IMF, Yuguda went back to the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2001 where he led a team mandated to restructure and diversify the CBN’s growing foreign exchange reserve portfolio. Yuguda eventually rose to the position of Director of the Reserve Management Department from 2010 to 2016 before retiring.
Yuguda obtained a B.Sc in Accounting in 1983 from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and an M.Soc.Sc in Money, Banking and Finance in 1991 from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. He also holds a Certificate in Financial Asset Management and Engineering from the Swiss Finance Institute, Geneva, Switzerland.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and a CFA charterholder.
