By Sodeinde Temidayo David
Professional and consultancy service firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has called for Nigeria to publicize, embrace and enhance the initiative of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) to the development of the country.
This is coming after expanding the initiative of ESG services to help clients deal with growing demands for sustainability and climate risk reporting and assurance on their disclosures.
This was made known by the partner and head of sustainability services of PwC Nigeria, Ms Rukaiya El-Rufai, at a virtual workshop for journalists organized by the firm.
The ESG is a set of environmental, social and governance standards for company operations, a standard used by many investors in a bid to appear socially responsible and sustaining the planet.
ESG represents risks and opportunities that will impact a company’s ability to create long-term value including climate change and resource scarcity, safety issues and data security and board diversity, executive pay and tax transparency.
Examples of companies’ ESG factors are firms using energy efficiently, using renewable energies that emit fewer GHG, are less polluting, and contribute less to climate change, and managing waste responsibly. It is like adopting circular economy principles.
Ms El-Rufai commended the country’s effort in creating standards that have helped to advance ESG making the top ranking of ESG adoption in the continent, especially in banking.
According to Ms El-Rufai in her presentation, one of the themes to shape the Nigerian economy is the adoption of ESG efficiently, set to represent risks and opportunities that will impact a company’s ability to create long-term value.
“The concept of sustainability is much broader than just climate change risk and encompasses a wide range of environmental, social and governance factors.
“In a business context, it is how organisations do what they do, as it is concerned with how sustainable behaviours, actions and intent show up across an organisation’s values, purpose, strategy, business model and operating model,” she said.
As stated by her, there is a growing pressure for companies to go beyond shareholders’ value to the enterprise and social value creation, and to build investors’ trust in ESG, various companies, journalists and other stakeholders are required.
Ms El-Rufai further urged media professionals to be advocates of ESG and embrace ESG reporting in a bid to promote greater action and transparent disclosure and information.
Other experts who spoke at the virtual event included Mr Andrew Nevin, Partner and Chief Economist at PwCc Nigeria, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, Fiscal Policy Partner & Africa Tax Leader at PwC Nigeria, as well as Mrs Della Asuzu, the Head of Marketing & Communications at PwC Nigeria.
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