Oscar Onyema, the new Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Exchange Group, was welcomed by Oba Otudeko, the former president of the Nigeria Stock Exchange and other stakeholders in the capital market, at the ceremony held in his honour at the NGX office in Lagos on Tuesday.

The Association of Securities Dealing Houses of Nigeria and the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers in partnership with NGX Group, CSCS, and NG Clearing Limited, marked the end of Onyema’s 13-years tenure at the exchange Group.

Otudeko, who is also the founder of the Honeywell Group, said, “I call him ‘big man’. I was the president of the stock exchange when Onyema was being spoken to and invited to come and be the CEO of the exchange. Our council was willing to scout the world and get the best at that time. We worked very hard and we interacted with him. The truth is that Onyema is a prince and one lesson that one would learn is that the personality of someone who can take an institution of this size to its destination must be that of a noble background.

“If you have a noble background, then you will see that some of the important character traits that have been spelt out are here. Onyema’s character as spoken about, his professionalism is outstanding, and his confidence is very convincing. I found in Onyema that it is good to come from nobility; believe me, not because I’m ‘Oba’ but because the platform of nobility provides you with examples, life experiences and unique views. I believe that this must be yet another stage in Onyema’s life. He’s still a young man.”

Umaru Kwairanga, the Chairman of the NGX stressed that, “His achievements during the NSE era were nothing short of monumental. Onyema overhauled the technological backbone by developing and transforming our trading platform, bringing it into the modern era, working with management and staff to design a robust business continuity plan that saw the exchange seamlessly maintain remote trading for over two years in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“He implemented a world-class regulatory regime focused on fairness, stability, collaborative rule-making and robust corporate standards. This steadfast commitment to regulation and transparency restored our investors’ confidence and positioned the exchange as a credible and trusted platform.”

Also, the President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, Oluwole Adeosun, Onyema came in from the United States of America, where he had capital market experience and immediately brought that experience to bear in setting a clear and firm path for the recovery of the stock market through wholesome restructuring and revisioning of the only active securities exchange that the country had at that time.

“Between 2011 and March 2024 is 13 years and incredibly today, very few people remember or can ever remember that this same market was in that gloomy state as most of the global capital markets were back then. The symbolism is further accentuated by the fact that the great market boom experienced between 2006 and 2007 was recently replicated in 2022 and 2023, even stretching into the first quarter of 2024,” he stated.

Onyema was the CEO of the exchange and he led it through the demutualisation process in 2011.

He saw the Nigerian Exchange Group on  operating exchange of the group afterwards.

Onyema said, Temi Popoola, who was the former CEO of the Nigerian Exchange Limited made him succeeded.