Abdulkader Thomas is the president and CEO of SHAPE for Economic Consulting doing business as SHAPE Knowledge Services, Kuwait. Abdulkader has over 30 years of diversified financial services experience. Abdulkader’s background includes capital markets, real estate finance and trade finance. He has served in various international banks and dealt with the regulatory approval for Islamic products in different countries, and consults for and trains financial institutions, regulators, and businesses about Islamic finance.

Along with his team at SHAPE, Abdulkader works on projects that include launching de novo Islamic banks and Islamic banking windows, funds, Sukuk, regulations, policies and procedures including Shariah policies, Shariah compliance, product development and structuring.

Abdulkader is a member of the International Advisory Committee for Islamic Capital Markets at the Securities Commission of Malaysia.

A graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in international trade, Abdulkader earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (Honors) in Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Chicago.

Abdulkader is a frequent speaker on Islamic financial and banking matters. He has co-authored or edited several works in the field including ‘Structuring Islamic Financial Transactions’ with Stella Cox and Bryan Kraty (London: Euromoney, 2005), among others.

Dr Akeem Oyewale is CEO of Marble Capital and an Arthur Anderson scholar, and has over 20 years of extensive experience in investment banking, credit marketing, trade finance and sustainable finance. He managed the Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund, Nigeria’s largest mutual fund at the time, and was responsible for the launch of the Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He is also an associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria. He was previously CEO of Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers (Nigeria’s largest stockbroking firm), Stanbic IBTC Asset Management and Stanbic IBTC Nominees, all of the Standard Bank Group.

Dr Akeem holds a doctorate degree in management of technology and innovation from Da Vinci Institute in South Africa; an MBA from Manchester Business School in the UK; and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree in accounting from the University of Lagos. He is an alumnus of the Said Business School, University of Oxford and a certified impact investing expert from the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. He also has a professional certificate in Islamic capital markets from International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance or INCEIF in Malaysia. He is currently a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission Financial Literacy Technical Committee.

Hassan H. Suleiman is currently the Head, Economic Research and Policy Management division under the office of the Chief Economist, Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to that he was part of the Strategy Team from 2018 to 2021. Previous to that, he was Technical Assistant to the then Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Before joining the Commission in 2016, he was a lecturer in Economics at Bayero University Kano for over 12 years. He holds a PhD in Economics from Abertay University Dundee, United Kingdom. He also holds a Master of Science and a Bachelors’ Degree in Economics from Bayero University Kano Nigeria.

Kazeem is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria as well as a Master’s Degree in Finance from London Business School, United Kingdom.

Prior to joining NGX as the Head of Secondary Markets, he worked as Vice President, Investment Management with EDC Fund Management. His cumulative experience spans diverse areas of the Financial Services industry, and he brings to this role a rich and varied experience with competencies in Portfolio Management and Advisory, Financial and Investment Analysis, Stakeholder Engagement, Asset Management, Corporate Finance and Macro-Economic Analysis amongst other areas.

Patience Oniha is currently the director-general of the Debt Management Office (DMO), a position she assumed on the 1st July 2017. Prior to this, she had served as the director of the Market Development Department of the DMO (2008–15) and the pioneer head of the Efficiency Unit at the federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (2015–17).

Patience has had a distinguished career in the banking sector, cutting across credit, marketing, investment banking and treasury and rose to the position of general manager at Standard Chartered Bank before making a career move to the public sector in June 2008.

Patience holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics (first class honors) from the University of Benin in Benin City in 1983 and a Master’s degree in finance from the University of Lagos in 1985. She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria having qualified in 1989 and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.

Patience is passionate about delivering solutions and results that propel institutions to higher levels. This drive has also been evident in the public sector where she introduced benchmark sovereign bonds leading to a domestic sovereign yield curve extending up to 30 years and has replicated the same in the international capital market through sovereign Eurobonds, among other achievements.