Oscar N. Onyema is a recipient of the National award, Officer of the Order of the Niger. This kind of award is only given to those who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields. Oscar Onyema is one of them.Born 19 August 1968, Oscar is the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
His bio reads that, Mr. Onyema has been CEO and member of the National Council of The Exchange since April 2011. In this role, he is responsible for supervising the general working of The Exchange. He is Chairman of Central Securities Clearing System Plc (CSCS), the clearing, settlement and depository for the Nigerian capital market; Chairman of NG Clearing, which is in the process of developing a CCP; and Chairman of the subsidiaries of The Exchange. Oscar is a member of several advisory boards including London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Africa Advisory Group (LAAG) and Thomson Reuters Africa Advisory Network.
Mr. Onyema was the President of African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) until November 2018. He has served as a Council member of Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS); Global Agenda Council member of World Economic Forum (WEF); board member of FMDQ OTC PLC and National Pension Commission of Nigeria (PENCOM). Prior to relocating to Nigeria, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at American Stock Exchange (Amex). He also ran the NYSE Amex equity business after the merger of NYSE Euronext and Amex in 2008.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (IOD); Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS); Associate of Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) in the UK; Holder of FINRA Series 7, 24, and 63 in the USA. Mr. Onyema completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program (AMP) in 2015. He got his MBA from Baruch College, New York in 1998; and BSc degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, in 1991. Amongst several accolades, Forbes Magazine listed him as one of the ten most powerful men in Africa in 2015
Prior to this role, he served for over 20 years in United States financial markets and the Nigerian information technology sector. He is the President of the African Securities Exchanges Association, and a Global Agenda Council member of the World Economic Forum.A Prince from Ogwu-Ikpele Kingdom, Oscar Onyema was born in Nigeria to the family of His Royal Majesty Eze V. B. C.
Onyema III, the Eze Onyema III of Ogwu-Ikpele. Onyema holds Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Series 7, 24, and 63 licenses, and is active in Security Traders Association of New York, and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.No doubt, under his Chairmanship, NSE has worked in areas such as technology, the market structure, business models, and regulations to ensure it properly services its issuers so they gain the financing they need to achieve their business objectives.A passionate activist for investment in our local contents, Oscar believes that One of the reasons to invest in Nigerian capital markets is higher returns, which domestic investors are aware of. He once revealed that more companies are starting to partner with NSE, and they have international agreements with other exchanges. “We seek to work with bigger stakeholders to make sure we are servicing our issuers properly and they have the financing to achieve their business objectives. We have tightened up a number of things, such as technology, the market structure, business models, and regulations”, he once said.He has worked with the vision that prospects abound in NSE and it has the possibility of broadening its current product offering. The prospects are very positive. Earlier in 2018 NSE announced its strategic plan for 2018-21, which calls for the NSE to pivot towards a more customer-centric business model. Through the use of data analytics NSE under his supervision aims to fully understand the demand for new products, and thus improve on its previous strategy of focusing on the types of products that emerging markets traditionally provide. Onyema led NSE has worked hand-in-hand with relevant government agencies, as governance is key to creating sustainable growth. NSE has developed the Corporate Governance Rating System, through which over 350 directors have been certified and also made aware of their fiduciary responsibilities. He said, “For the NSE’s largest listed companies with the highest levels of corporate governance there is the Premium Board, which is attracting the large-portfolio investors.
Alongside this, the sustainability working group at the African Securities Exchanges Association is disseminating best practices and in doing so, helping smaller African stock exchanges to be able to learn from their more experienced counterparts, furthering these developments at a regional level”.The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was founded in 1961 in Lagos. As of November 2019, it has a total of 161 listed companies, with 8 domestic companies on the premium board, 144 companies on the main board, and 9 companies on the Alternative Securities Market (ASeM) board. In the Fixed Income market, the NSE has 84 FGN bonds, 21 state bonds, 27 corporate bonds, 1 supranational bond and 53 memorandum listings. Its operations are regulated by The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the main regulatory institution of the Nigerian capital market. It is supervised by the Federal Ministry of Finance. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is privately owned and self-regulating, but the SEC maintains surveillance over it with the mandate of ensuring orderly and equitable dealings in securities, and protecting the market against insider trading abuses. The Nigerian Exchange is a member of the World Federation of Exchanges (FIBV). It is also an observer at meetings of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and a founding member of the African Stock Exchanges Association (ASEA). On 31 October 2013, it joined the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative (SSE).
