The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Yuguda, has said that given her rich human and natural endowments, Nigeria is positioned to embrace sustainable finance principles required to attract investment for Africa’s sustainable growth.
Yuguda made this remark during a lecture he delivered to mark the IOSCO World Investor Week 2022 with the theme ‘Investor Resilience and Sustainable Finance’.
The Director-General, who was represented by the SEC’s Executive Commissioner Operations, Mr. Dayo Obisan, said that the theme for this year’s event demonstrated the value IOSCO places on investor protection and the environment, especially in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and other challenges such as inflationary pressures, uncertainties occasioned by geopolitical tensions, and continued environmental degradation.
He explained: “Indeed, the themes, undoubtedly, further place emphasis on the universal call for sustainable finance and its resultant economic growth and development. There is no doubt therefore that all jurisdictions must think of transiting from exploiting nature to restoring nature.
“It is worthy of note that SEC through the market development department has done well to outline robust activities for the week long global events”, Yuguda added.
According to him, sustainable finance has evolved as a global concept, and the world firmly stands together to promote the transition to a low-carbon, more resource efficient economy towards building a financial system that incentivizes sustainable growth across nations.
He further noted that globally, issuers and investors are embracing the idea of sustainable investing and environment-friendly projects, hence the significant surge in sustainable investment within the last few years, which is apparently driven mainly by investors’ desire for a cleaner, healthier and more equitable future.
Yuguda said that the SEC as a regulator was conscious of its critical role in ensuring that the financial sector is steered towards green investments through its policies and regulations.
He stressed that it was in recognition of the importance of sustainable finance that the commission introduced the Rules on Green Bonds in 2018 following which three approvals were granted to some corporate issuers for bond issuance.
The Director-General also said that in order to consolidate on the modest achievements recorded through the 2018 initiative, the Commission had also issued Rules on Social Bonds in 2021.
The IOSCO World Investor Week is an annual event coordinated by IOSCO, which encourages its members, securities regulators around the world, to commemorate in their respective jurisdictions for the purpose of promoting investor education and protection.
To commemorate the IOSCO WIW 2022, the Commission embarked on activities, such as enlightenment outreaches, social media campaigns and radio appearances to mention but a few.
Topics covered during the lecture sessions availed participants opportunities to discuss and reflect on what boosts and enhances investor resilience in the market, as well as sustainable finance as it involves making investment decisions that consider not only financial returns, but also environmental, social, and governance factors.
