Head, Research and Commercial Strategy

At NASD PLC our focus is on being the hub of first call for capital formation in West Africa. This translates to us working to provide platforms for primary and secondary market liquidity. In the primary market, our focus is to ease capital raise process; and provide secondary liquidity and transparency for Investors who wish to play in our secondary market.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head, Research & Commercial Strategy

Location: Lagos
Employment type: Full-time

Role Summary

• To use research, market intelligence and commercial analysis to identify growth opportunities for NASD, improve the investability and visibility of securities on the market, support issuer origination, develop new products and provide management with the intelligence required to increase trading activity and sustainable revenue.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify sectors, companies and securities with the strongest potential for admission, capital raising and secondary-market activity.
• Develop target lists and investment cases that the Business Development team can take into the market.
• Produce research and market intelligence supporting issuer origination and investor engagement.
• Build a framework for improving research coverage and investor information on NASD-listed/admitted companies.
• Develop standardised issuer profiles covering financial performance, ownership, disclosures, trading history, liquidity and relevant market information.
• Track NASD market quality, including trading frequency, trading value, bid/offer spreads, executable depth, concentration of trading, active investors and liquidity by security.
• Distinguish recurring market liquidity from exceptional block transactions so management has an accurate view of underlying activity.
• Analyse the Commercial Paper market, including programmes, maturities, yields, issuers, investor demand, competitors and opportunities for NASD.
• Work with Business Development to identify companies that should establish Commercial Paper programmes and provide the research supporting the commercial pitch.
• Support the development of a secondary Commercial Paper market through analysis of investor behaviour, liquidity requirements, pricing/yield information and potential market-maker participation.
• Evaluate new commercial opportunities including digital securities, private markets, structured products and Relevant instruments.
• Develop commercial business cases for new products before significant NASD resources are committed.
• Track competitor exchanges, fintechs and capital-market infrastructure locally and internationally.
• Produce management dashboards connecting market activity to commercial outcomes and NASD revenue.
• Support the MD/CEO with research for strategy, major issuer meetings, regulatory engagement and market-development initiatives.

Qualifications and Experience

• A Bachelors degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Marketing, or a related field;
• MBA or relevant postgraduate qualification is strongly preferred.
• 8-12+ years of relevant experience across equity or fixed-income research, investment banking, asset management, securities markets, strategy or capital-market infrastructure.
• Deep understanding of Nigerian capital markets, securities, valuation, market structure and investor behaviour.
• Strong quantitative and analytical capability, with the ability to turn market data into actionable commercial recommendations.
• Ability to produce decision-useful research rather than purely descriptive reporting.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present complex market insights clearly to senior management, issuers and investors.
• Commercial mindset and ability to work closely with Business Development while retaining independent analytical judgement.