FMDQ Organises Cocktail Reception & Dinner Party in Honour of Immediate Past Chairman, Dr. (Mrs.) Sarah O. Alade, OON, and Retired Directors
On Friday, October 27, 2017, FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange (FMDQ or the OTC Exchange) held a befitting Cocktail Reception & Dinner Party in honour of the immediate past Chairman of the FMDQ Board of Directors, Dr. (Mrs.) Sarah O. Alade, OON, and six (6) other retired Non-Executive Directors, who served the OTC Exchange until April 28, 2017. The retired Non-Executive Directors who were also honoured at the event were Mr. Olabisi Onasanya, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, The Address Homes Ltd.; Mr. Phillips Oduoza, Chairman, Nova Merchant Bank Ltd.; Mr. Yinka Sanni, Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC; Alhaji Muhammad Nda, Honourable Commissioner/Deputy Chairman, Niger State Planning Commission; Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, OON, Chief Executive Officer, The Nigerian Stock Exchange; and Mr. Sadiq Mohammed; Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer, ARM.
The event, which was held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos, was well attended by FMDQ current and inaugural Board of Directors, including the inaugural Chairman, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, CON, shareholders, FMDQ’s Members, including Managing Director/CEOs of banks and other financial institutions, regulators, captains of industry, and the financial markets community in general, as invitees turned out in large numbers to honour the special guest of honour, Dr. Sarah Alade, also former Deputy Governor, Economic Policy Directorate, Central Bank of Nigeria, for her immense contribution to not just FMDQ, but to the Nigerian financial markets as a whole.
Welcoming the honourees and guests to the event, the Managing Director/CEO of FMDQ, Mr. Bola Onadele. Koko, in his address, thanked the honourees for their various contributions to the development of FMDQ and by extension, the Nigerian financial markets. Speaking about Dr. Sarah Alade, Mr. Onadele noted that she shepherded the establishment of FMDQ, in collaboration with other financial markets stakeholders, and led the OTC Exchange in accomplishing many firsts such as the listings and quotations of Federal Government of Nigeria Bonds and Treasury Bills on the OTC Exchange, the launch of the Naira-settled OTC FX Futures Market, amongst many others. Messrs Olabisi Onasanya, Phillips Oduoza, Muhammad Nda and Yinka Sanni, were commended for their service on the FMDQ Board Governance and Human Resources Committee, in shaping the corporate governance standards of FMDQ and creating the foundation for FMDQ to aspire to be an employer of choice; Mr. Sadiq Mohammed was commended for his service on the FMDQ Board Listings, Markets and Technology Committee, in positioning FMDQ as a reputable market organiser; and Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, OON, for his immense guidance in establishing FMDQ as a platform for listing debt securities and an effective self-regulatory organisation.
The Chief Host and Chairman of the Board of FMDQ, Dr. Okwu Joseph Nnanna, represented by the Vice Chairman of FMDQ, Mr. Jibril Aku, during his special remarks expressed gratitude to the honourees, on behalf of the OTC Exchange, for their dedication in discharging their duties to FMDQ and affirmed his commitment to fostering a conducive environment for all stakeholders to build on the foundation which was laid by his predecessors. The Keynote Speaker, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, during his address, celebrated the special guest, Dr. Sarah Alade, as a focused individual and policy maker with very good intellectual depth, who rose through the ranks in the Nigerian public sector without any blemish to her reputation; he also acknowledged the transparency FMDQ has brought to the Nigerian financial markets.
Dr. Sarah Alade, during her remarks, which followed the unveiling of the publication in her honour, ‘A Securities Exchange as an Agent of Change’ (Vol. 2), a special FMDQ literature chronicling the progress of the OTC Exchange during her tenure as Chairman, expressed her appreciation for the opportunity to serve, while commending the other honourees and current Board Members for creating the enabling environment and offering the needed support for ensuring that FMDQ lived true to its founding mandate to empower the financial markets to be innovative and credible, in support of the Nigerian economy.