NGX Regulation urges market stakeholders to enhance climate-related financial disclosure

NGX Regulation Limited (NGX REGCO) has urged all market stakeholders to pay closer attention to climate-related financial risks and opportunities in their operations.

The company said it is in line with the recommendations of the Financial Standards Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

NGX Regulation — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX Group) — is responsible for enforcing clients’ listing and trading rules in accordance with global best practices.  

Tinuade Awe, chief executive officer, NGX Regulation Limited, said this during her opening remarks on virtual training on climate disclosure. 

The event was jointly hosted by Nigerian Exchange Limited and NGX Regulation in collaboration with UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in Lagos.

According to Awe, the training is timely due to increased pressures from policymakers on climate disclosure from listed companies. 

“For Nigeria, these policy pressures emanate from the Climate Change Act 2021, which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2021,” she said. 

“This is also consistent with Nigeria’s vision to be a low-carbon, climate-resilient, high growth circular economy that reduces its current level of emissions by 50% by 2050, as captured in the 2050 Long-Term vision for the Nigerian economy which was issued by the Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment in November 2021.”

She added that the world is in a race to rapidly decarbonise, and investors and providers of finance are increasingly interested in how companies are moving towards achieving net-zero emissions. 

According to Awe, companies that do not effectively navigate the climate transition and provide adequate disclosure on climate action may experience increased friction in accessing long-term sustainable capital.

“As a leading capital market infrastructure group, we recognise the important role we play in helping our markets navigate this transition,” she added.

“We are pleased to host this training as part of our Climate Awareness Initiative to help our stakeholders not only make sense of the global and local trends in climate change but also to help them navigate the net-zero transition and align with increasing demands from policymakers and providers of finance on climate-related financial disclosure.”