Nigeria banks on Monday joined global lenders to become founding signatories as they launched the Global Principles for Responsible Banking.
By signing the Principles, the Nigerian banks, including Access bank plc, Keystone bank, among others, have joined a coalition of 130 banks worldwide including ING, representing over $47 trillion in assets, in committing to taking on a crucial role in helping to achieve a sustainable future.
This is a further commitment to strategically align their business with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
The banks have demonstrated commitment towards using their products and services to support and accelerate positive changes in both local and international economies as well as promote lifestyles necessary to achieve shared prosperity for both current and future generations.
Herbert Wigwe, group managing director of Access Bank plc, stressed the need for continued collaboration and long-term approach to sustainability, recognising the benefits of sustainable banking and the positive effect it has on the bank and society.
“There is a greater need now, more than ever, to promote sustainability in the global financial sector. This is therefore the right time to launch the Global Principles for Responsible Banking,” Wigwe said.
“At Access Bank, we are committed to setting standards and engendering innovative solutions that address social, economic and environmental challenges. We believe that the Sustainable Development Goals will be better achieved if we can work together, using these Principles as a guide,” he said.
As expressed in the Global Principles for Responsible Banking, Access Bank is convinced that humans and businesses can only thrive in an inclusive society founded on human dignity, equality and the sustainable use of natural resources.
The official launch of the principles which marked the beginning of the most significant partnership to date between the global banking industry and the UN held at the start of the United Nations General Assembly.
“The UN Principles for Responsible Banking are a guide for the global banking industry to respond to, drive and benefit from a sustainable development economy. The Principles create the accountability that can realize responsibility, and the ambition that can drive action,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
With increasing concerns about climate change leading to a shift in the perception of climate risk among financial institutions and investors, Inger Andersen, executive director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), urged financial institutions to adopt adequate risk management planning.
“A banking industry that plans for the risks associated with climate change and other environmental challenges can not only drive the transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies, it can benefit from it. When the financial system shifts its capital away from resource-hungry, brown investments to those that back nature as solution, everybody wins in the long term,” Andersen said.
The Principles for Responsible Banking will provide Access Bank with an effective framework to systematically identify and seize new business opportunities created by the emerging sustainable development economy, while at the same time enabling the bank to effectively identify and address related risks, the bank said in a statement.
Yemi Odusanya, executive director, Keystone Bank Limited, said the bank is convinced that only in an inclusive society founded on human dignity, equality and the sustainable use of natural resources can its clients, customers and businesses thrive.
“By signing up to the Principles, we commit to using our products, services and relationships to support and accelerate the fundamental changes in our economies and lifestyles necessary to achieve shared prosperity for both current and future generations,” Odusanya said.
