GRI in conjunction with The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and Ernst & Young (EY) will host a seminar themed ‘Sustainability and Corporate Governance: Building Long Term Value’ on Thursday, March 16, 2017 at EY Nigeria office in Lagos.
The event will bring together C-level executives, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability experts, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to an interactive session where they will be provided with high-level insight into how corporate governance can engender value and growth in a rapidly changing global world, updated on the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, understand the imperative of Assurance on data quality and integrity and much more.
Keynote speakers at the event are Ms Tinuade Awe, General Counsel and Head of Regulation, NSE, Douglas Kativu, Director, GRI and Joseph Owolabi, West Africa Lead, Climate Change and Sustainability Services, EY. The event will also feature two panel discussions.
Panel One will discuss “corporate governance and disclosure for companies and investors”. Discussants for this panel session are Chinyere Almona, Africa Corporate Governance Program Manager, IFC Nigeria, Godstime Iwenekhai, Acting Head, Listings Regulation, NSE, Dr. Nechi Ezeako, Executive Director, IoD Center for Corporate Governance, Lucy Newman, Financial Institutions Training Center (FITC), Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan, Head Sustainability, Access Bank.
Panel Two will examine Capacity building for ESG Disclosure and panelists are Joseph Owolabi, West Africa Lead, Climate Change and Sustainability Services, EY, Emilia-Asim Ita, Senior Consultant, Strategy & External Relations, ThistlePraxis Consulting, Dr. Ijeoma Nwagwu, Head, Sustainability Centre, Lagos Business School and Bekeme Masade, Executive Director, CSR in Action.
Commenting on the event, Henry Egbiki, EY Country Leader, said: “sustainability reporting in business is no longer an option but a fundamental component of good corporate governance in business. For us at EY, sustainability reporting has been a central area of focus as it aligns perfectly with our purpose of ‘Building a better-working world’. Our Global CEO and Chairman (Mark Weinberger) has taken a strategic position on it by joining the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC)’s Board.
Oscar N. Onyema, NSE CEO Said: “We are pleased to see an increasing level of awareness and compliance with corporate governance and sustainability guidelines in our market. As a key member of Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative, we will continue to leverage our unique positi on and partner other institutions to raise the standards of corporate governance and sustainability in Nigeria.”
While commenting on the importance of the event, Douglas Kativu, Director GRI Africa said:
“Society needs information to act upon, and companies require information that assists them in designing appropriate measures aimed at identifying, avoiding, mitigating and remedying negative impacts. Transparency has the power to transform corporate practices, enabling organisations to measure and manage their impacts on a wide range of sustainability issues. Reporting is a transformative tool to empower decision making.”
This will be the third collaboration between NSE, GRI and EY. In November 2015, the three organisations collaborated on the maiden Nigerian Capital Market Sustainability Conference. This was followed up with a sustainability training in June 2016.
