Sustainability, climate disclosures crucial for protecting investors, says NGX Regulation

NGX Regulation Limited (NGX RegCo) says it remains committed to championing the drive of sustainability and climatic disclosure reporting among companies to ensure investors in the Nigerian capital market are protected.

Tinuade Awe, chief executive officer, NGX RegCo, spoke during the opening of the 3-day virtual workshop on sustainability disclosure standards for companies as well as investors in the capital market in Lagos on Tuesday.

She said the workshop was organised to help investors understand the basic concepts of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards and make effective decisions based on the standards.

Expressing her excitement, Awe said NGX RegCo would continue to promote a fair, transparent and orderly market that thrives on full and timely information.

She said, “As a member of the NGX Group, our commitment towards driving sustainability and climate disclosures dates back in time and continues as we partner with organisations such as the FRC and so we are pleased to have these sessions as they are important and we look forward to having more collaborations with the FRC as well as other organisations.”

Awe further revealed that there is an adoption readiness strategy mapped out to help accountants and auditors in sustainability and climatic reporting.

“The adoption readiness working group is a creation of the FRC supported by the ISSB where basically a group of people are being put together in order to advise or help the FRC on a roadmap for getting to the adoption of these standards to work in Nigeria,”
she said.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, Shuaibu Adamu, executive secretary, Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of Nigeria, said Nigeria is the only African country that has been selected to launch the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) S1 and IFRS S2.

He said the key to the launching of these standards has been awareness and capacity building.

Commending NGX RegCo and ISSB, Adamu said, “It is encouraging that African countries are coming together to collaborate in this capacity-building programme because it is clear that Africa does not want to be left behind.”

“We want to appreciate NGX RegCo for agreeing to partner with us and they have been so far worth partners in this endeavour. It is clear that ISSB wants implementation of these standards globally and they have taken time to ensure Africa is not left behind”.

Also speaking at the event, Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, board member, ISSB, said IFRS standards are used across 140 countries.

She said the objective is to enable companies to provide comprehensive, decision useful sustainability and climate information to global capital markets, and develop a common language of sustainability-related disclosures.