Santosh Narayan Shrestha has been appointed as the chairman of the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), a position which had remained vacant for nearly a year.

Minister for Communications and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung informed that the Cabinet meeting on Monday, November 25, decided to appoint Shrestha as the chairman of SEBON for a four-year term.

Shrestha was on top of the recommendation list forwarded by the recommendation committee for the final selection. He was followed by Mukti Narayan Shrestha and Dr. Navaraj Adhikari, respectively, according to a member of the recommendation committee.

Shrestha, who has a BBA and an MBA degrees from Kathmandu University, has previously worked as a director at the Nepal Electricity Authority and served as a chairman at various financial institutions.

The prolonged absence of a chairman in the body responsible to regulate the country’s capital market has significantly hindered the process of public issuance approvals. 

Earlier this year in January, the government had formed a recommendation committee to move forward with the appointment process.

There were, however, rumors since the beginning that Santosh Narayan would be appointed as chairman under the influence of a business group.

In the final selection process, three out of the five candidates remained absent during the first phase – presentation and interview. 

In the interview, only Santosh Narayan and Mukti Narayan participated. The recommendation committee had canceled the appointment process. 

But Santosh Narayan took the matter to the Supreme Court, which ordered that the appointment process should not be halted.

On Sunday, November 24, of the three candidates — Dr Navaraj Adhikari, Chiranjivi Chapagain, and Krishna Bahadur Karki — who had previously remained absent, Adhikari and Karki showed up for the presentation and interview. It opened the way to make the recommendation for the final selection.