The Board of Trustees of the Investors Protection Fund of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday appointed Lawrence Anga as the chairperson of the board.

The appointment followed the death of the chairman, Gamaliel Onosode.

Mr. Anga, a partner at AELEX, a leading commercial and litigation law firm, joined the IPF Board of Trustees in September 2012.

He has a multi-disciplinary background in law, economics, management and fiscal policy and is qualified to practice law in Nigeria, England and Wales and in Ghana.

Mr. Anga was also a contributor to the chapter on Nigeria for the Harvard Securities Project and Chairman of the CBN SMIES policy guidelines review committee.

He was a former chairman of the Capital Market Solicitors Association and a member of various ad-hoc committees established by the Ministry of Finance and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He was a past member of the Presidential Policy Advisory Committee, and served as a member of the sub-committee on finance and investment.

He appears as counsel before all superior courts of record in Nigeria and Ghana and has acted as a party appointed Arbitrator on several arbitration panels.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

Mr. Anga, in accepting the new position, said he was honoured and excited about the possibilities that lie in future for the capital markets in Nigeria.

“Having crossed the hurdle of paying first set of claimants under the fund, we now have learning to rely on in the speedy but thorough examination of claims to compensate investors for pecuniary losses suffered by them as a result of wrong doing by certain dealing member firms of the exchange.

“The Board will continue to do its best to move the fund forward,” Mr. Angar said.

Oscar Onyema, NSE Chief Executive Officer, appealed for excellent working relationship between the new chairperson and other IPF Trustees in the promotion of strong corporate governance while stepping up compensation of investors when the need arises.

“I am strongly convinced that having been part of the development of the IPF and its compensation framework, the chairperson will be able to provide quality leadership and steer towards the realisation of the fund’s objectives,” said Mr. Onyema.

The IPF is a statutory fund established by NSE pursuant to Section 197 of the Investment and Securities Act to compensate investors who suffer pecuniary loss arising from the revocation or cancellation of the registration of a dealing member firm by SEC.

The other areas covered by IPF include insolvency, bankruptcy or negligence of a dealing member firm of the exchange, defalcation committed by a dealing member firm or any of its directors, officers, employees or representatives in relation to securities, money or any property entrusted to, or received or deemed received by the dealing member firm in the course of its business as a dealing member firm.

Meanwhile, the IPF has paid about N24 million in settlements after the verification of 103 claims.