Bank restates commitment to sustainability reporting

IN furtherance of its commitment to promoting the highest standards of corporate governance, sound reporting, and accountability, Skye Bank Plc is leading the national campaign for corporate organisations to embrace sustainability reporting.

In pursuance of the goal, the bank hosted over 40 delegates from different institutions including banks and regulatory authorities for the 2015 stakeholders conference on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

Welcoming participants to the conference, Head, Sustainability and Consumer Protection of Skye Bank, Mrs. Bola Adesanoye, said the bank was seeking to achieve the desired mileage in the implementation of the nine Nigerian Sustainable Banking Principles.

Specifically, she said the bank had being implementing all the sustainable banking principles with a view to ensuring that its activities do not impact negatively on the economy and the environment.

Adesanoye said sustainability reporting would promote corporate governance, transparency in reporting and ensure that business practices do not impact negatively on the environment in a way that it can be detrimental to the economy.

In a presentation at the conference, the Director, Global Reporting Initiative, Africa, Mr. Douglas Kativu, said corporate organisations must encourage sustainable reporting as a basis for continued success in business.

“We are encouraging companies to adopt sustainable practices in the context of environmental, social and economic consequences. Companies must not only look at the financial profit but other factors to build value for the stakeholders”, he said.

Speaking on the need to adopt Global Reporting Initiative’s G4 reporting principles, Kativu said corporations seeking to achieve transparency in sustainability reporting must adopt the reporting principles for proper understanding of the content and quality of reporting.

He said orgaisations must embrace the principles of balance, accuracy, timeliness, clarity, reliability and comparability to enable their stakeholders to make sound and reasonable assessments of performance and take appropriate actions.

GRI is an international independent organization that helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate the impact of business on critical sustainability issues such as climate change, human rights, corruption and many others. The organization has pioneered sustainability reporting since the late 1990s, transforming it from a niche practice to one now adopted by a growing majority of organizations.