PROFILE: Meet Olufemi Lijadu, the new chairman of SEC board

Four years after the dissolution of the board of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the capital market regulator will get a governing board.

The SEC board will now be headed by Olufemi Lijadu, a lawyer.

The investiture was conducted on Monday by Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, the permanent secretary of the federal ministry of finance in Abuja.

Part-time members of the board are Okokon Ekanem Udo (representing the ministry of finance), Angela Adewumi Sere-Ejembi (representing the Central Bank of Nigeria), Faruk Ladi Rekiya (part-time commissioner), Lamido Abubakar Yuguda (part-time commissioner).

Full-time members are Mary Joseph Uduk (SEC’s acting director-general), Isyaku Bala Tilde (acting executive commissioner, operations), Reginald Karawusa (acting executive commissioner, legal and enforcement), and Henry Adekunle Rowlands (acting executive commissioner, corporate services).

Auditor of recovered assets

He recently worked with the federal government as a chairman of the Presidential Audit Committee on Recovered Public Assets.

The committee was raised to audit recovered funds from May 29, 2015, to April 10, 2017, and later extended to November 22, 2017.

First company secretary at UBA

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) was originally the British and French Bank Limited (BFB), a subsidiary of Banque Nationale de Paris, Bankers’ Trust (now Deutsche Bank).

After Nigeria gained independence in 1960, the bank was incorporated and later on privatised.

In 1994, Lijadu was appointed as the company secretary; becoming the first post-privatisation company secretary and legal adviser.

By 1997, he became UBA’s executive director, management services sector and eventually moved on to occupy the office of the executive director, an international sector at the bank.

Commercial lawyer

Lijadu, who hails from Ogun state, is a partner in the law firm of Ukiri Lijadu and heads the banking and finance practice.

Between 2011 and 2016, he was a partner at Ajumogobia & Okeke. During his time at the law firm, his areas of specialisation were: banking & finance, foreign investment, company & commercial law.

During his time with Udo Udoma& Belo-Osagie, he was part of the team that formulated the legal and business strategy for the $4 billion Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Nigeria.