NECA pushes firms toward responsible profit making

*Launches ESG Advisory Board to shake up industry standards

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, has stepped up efforts to drive responsible and sustainable business practices across the country .

To achieve this goal, the umbrella body for employers in the country has announced the establishment of a new Environmental, Social and Governance, ESG, Advisory Board. The initiative, according to NECA, is designed to shift Nigerian companies away from traditional profit-maximisation and toward more ethical, environmentally conscious profitmaking.

NECA’s Director-General, Mr. Adewale Smatt-Oyerinde, unfolded the plan in Lagos during the ESG State of Play Report Launch Conference, organised in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation, ILO.

He expressed concern that while large corporations have embraced ESG, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, SMEs, remain largely left out of the conversation.

According to him, the Advisory Board will be composed mainly of major organisations that already have the structures, expertise and capacity to champion ESG compliance nationwide.

He said: “What we want to do immediately after this launch is to constitute the NECA ESG Advisory Board involving many of these organisations that are already up there. That is because they have the structure, the knowledge and the information. Through them, and with them, we keep reaching out to all our collaborative platforms.

“A lot of things are now happening within the context of the business. It is no more about profit maximisation. Businesses are concerned about profit optimisation. It is not about just doing business for profit now, it is also about taking cognisance of the environment, governance issues and ethical issues.

“ESG becomes important to us because it is at the heart of how a business should operate by focusing on the environment, social issues and governance issues while making profit.

“We have noticed that the awareness of ESG is not that wide, even though the top line businesses such as Access Bank, British American Tobacco, Nestle, Guinness put it into consideration. And that is because it has become not only imperative for them, it has become important for their growth, especially for those that want to operate across the border. ESG compliance is now part of the regulation, part of the requirements. 

“But beyond that level, at the MSME level, SME level, the conversation about ESG is not taking place in that environment. Our charge after now is to deepen our collaboration with all organisations that are involved in ESG currently so that we start distilling the benefits and opportunities to enable everybody get aligned.”

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