Access Bank partners CBN on sustainability reporting date

Access Bank Plc, in partnership with the Central Bank of Nige­ria (CBN) has challenged Ni­gerian banks to adhere to the Nigeria Sustainability Bank­ing Principles (NSBP), espe­cially as the October 7 report­ing date for the next quarter approaches.
Banks are important in this because their services have im­pact that cut across various sec­tors. It lays emphasis on funding transactions that have develop­mental impact on the economy.
The guest speaker, MD/CEO, Sustainable Finance, UK, Carey Bohjanem, who stated this at the NSBP pre-reporting workshop organised by Access Bank on Wednesday, encouraged banks to take environmental issues se­riously in considering their risk management.
According to her, Nigerian banks that are yet to implement the banking principles should collaborate with those that have implemented it to seek ways of assessing and managing the envi­ronmental and social risks associ­ated with such investment activi­ties.
Chief Risk Officer of Access Bank, Greg Jobome, stated that the adoption of sustainability reporting would reveal the need to demon­strate that banks are implementing the policies formulated.
According to him, these policies must be internalised, which would enable banks to convince stake­holders on the policies.
A sustainability consultant, Kai­di Eddie-Obiakor of DiiGEM con­sulting noted that banks in Nigeria that started sustainability reporting years back have discovered that there is nothing to fear about open­ness in business.
According to her, in report­ing, banks should understand that what is important to stakeholders should also be important to it. She explained that principles that form the basis for sustainability report­ing involve “managing environ­mental and social risk in business decisions; managing the bank’s own environment and social foot­print; safeguarding human rights; promoting women’s economic participation/empowerment; pro­moting financial inclusion of com­munities and groups with limited or no access to the formal financial sector; meeting the imperatives for good governance, transparency and accountability; supporting ca­pacity building in the sector; pro­moting collaborative partnership to accelerate sector progress and reporting to take stock of sector progress and attendant needs.”
In line with global trends on sus­tainability, the CBN, on March 6, 2014, issued the NSBPs reporting template to banks, discount houses and development finance institu­tions for compliance.
By the circular, reporting institu­tions were informed that sustain­ability reporting would commence in June 2014 with the submission of the one-off report (first quarter) not later than July 7, 2014.
The circular also required that the second quarter one-off report should be submitted to CBN not later than October 7, 2014 while the third quarter report should reach CBN not later than January 7, 2015.