FRC urges speedy adoption of sustainability guidelines

The Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), Mr Shuaibu Ahmed, has said that Nigeria is not immune to climate change risks as seen by the annual flooding in various parts of the country. Ahmed, who disclosed this to stakeholders at the FRC’s first webinar series, also called for collaborative effort to […]

The Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), Mr Shuaibu Ahmed, has said that Nigeria is not immune to climate change risks as seen by the annual flooding in various parts of the country.

Ahmed, who disclosed this to stakeholders at the FRC’s first webinar series, also called for collaborative effort to address climate change and other environmental challenges in the country.

According to him, Nigeria must be at speed with the global move towards the adoption of sustainability guidelines.

He said, “The programme is the first in the series. We at FRC plan to ensure that Nigeria effectively contributes to a global single set of high quality sustainability reporting standards.

“Presently, sustainability reporting initiatives exist in silos and even non-existent in most sectors, therefore, a unified sustainable approach is inevitable to ensure that the current needs are met without complaint for the future generations to meet their needs.’’

Stakeholders at the event noted that some of the challenges the country was facing were escalated by climate change and had negatively affected specific sectors such as agriculture, water resources and critical infrastructure.

Speaking at the webinar, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Adeniyi Adebayo, said responding to climate change required comprehensive and integrated strategies that would simultaneously address social, economic and environmental consequences to ensure minimal impact.

He said, “The Financial Stability Board predictions indicate that climate change will put a risk around two per cent of the global financial assets by the year 2100 and this could rise up to 10 per cent under a worst case scenario.”

The Chief Executive Officer of NGX Regulation Ltd, Ms Tinuade Awe, urged all stakeholders to prioritise implementing initiatives that positively benefitted the environment and combatted climate change.

She said, “A critical step in this process for the private sector is for companies to incorporate environmental, social and governance matters into their business operations and activities as well as their reporting processes to have a better picture of their social and environmental impact.

“In Nigeria, the federal government has localised the global call by committing to achieving a net-zero economy by 2060 and signing the Climate Change Act 2021 into law.”