CIBN to train bankers on sustainable finance — President

The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) says it will soon organize capacity building for bankers in the country on the need for sustainable banking principles.

CIBN President, Dr Uche Olowu, said this at a conference organised by LAPO Microfinance Bank Limited in Lagos on Thursday with theme: “Enhancing Sustainable Finance in the Microfinance Subsector’’.

According to him, the role of CIBN in the proposed programme is to capacitise members of the banking community on the need for sustainable banking principles.

“To that extent, we have entered into collaboration with international institutions because it is very critical that we capacitise the people to understand and appreciate what it is all about and then they can become the vanguard to supporting this movement.

“We will continue to push the government for collaborations with institutions so that we have ethical conducts in businesses and in all that we do so as to make this world a better place than we have met it,’’ Olowu said.

Also speaking, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV), Dr Marcos Eguiguren, said the drive in sustainable finance in the financial sector was high in Sub Saharan African countries.

“What I really feel is that every time I visit Sub Saharan Africa, I feel a momentum on promoting micro economic and especially in the financial industries but, sometimes I don’t see it in other part of the world, including the developed countries

“So, I feel that Sub Saharan Africa, especially some countries like Kenya, Nigeria, are we really troubling other countries in terms scaling quickly from their mainstream banking to sustainable finance.

“So I feel that the momentum in this part of the world is very high,’’ he said.

In his paper, Director, Sustainable Business Initiative (SBI), Prof. Ken Amaeshi, said that sustainable finance was low globally because “investors don’t like what they cannot build upon.”

According to the don, sustainable finance has to be measurable, otherwise investors will not talk about sustainability if it is not measurable.

Amaeshi spoke on the topic: “Rethinking the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as an investment opportunity’’.

“The first reason why we are still where we are, five years down the line is because investors don’t like what they cannot build upon.

“If you are able to quantify and place a monetary value on it, then it can flow through the exchange,’’ he said.

The professor also said that leadership role was important in every organisation because it helped in defining and translating the problem in a way that people would understand.

The Managing Director, LAPO Microfinance Bank, Dr Godwin Ehigiamusoe, said that the aim of the conference was to promote the practice of sustainable finance and banking values, especially among microfinance banks.

“We know that for some years now, sustainable finance has been a topical issue, especially among commercial and development banks and believing also that the microfinance industry is growing,

“I feel that there is need for microfinance banks to adopt some of these principles as LAPO has done for the past 6 years,’’ he said.