Gwarzo re-elected as chair of IOSCO’s AMERC

The Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Mounir Gwarzo, has been unanimously re-elected to continue providing leadership to the Africa Middle East Regional Committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions as its chairman.

The AMERC comprises securities regulators that are IOSCO members within the Middle East and North Africa as well as sub-Saharan African regions. Gwarzo would serve for another term of two years, the commission said on its website on Tuesday.

His re-election, the commission noted, was a clear testament to Nigeria’s growing influence and improved image in the international community, and a strong indication of the overwhelming Nigeria’s SEC enjoys among peer regulators following a very successful first tenure.

It would be recalled that in February 2015, members of the regional body elected Gwarzo as chairman of AMERC during their 34th annual meeting in Muscat, Oman to complete the term of his predecessor.

Upon his election, he outlined to members his agenda for the regional committee, pledging to focus on advancing issues that improve voice, visibility and inclusiveness for African/Middle East markets while working towards more cooperation, especially to boost capacity building and cooperation.

According to SEC, the agenda aims to tackle three major challenges facing the frontier and emerging markets within the AMERC region, which are dearth of capacity, inadequate visibility and poor level of integration.

 “By this unanimous re-election, members have expressed desire to see Gwarzo continue to lead the committee to keep addressing these challenges. For example, AMERC members had for years been yearning for the inclusion of Arabic as one of the official languages of IOSCO since about 50 per cent of the member countries within the AMERC region are Arabic-speaking nations,” it added.

 Stanley Opara/Punch