Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will soon come up with directives that would hinder banks from lending to oil companies that do not adhere to environmental standard.
The Governor of the CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who made this statement on Friday at a financial sustainable week organised by Access Bank Plc., said that it was looking at how to incorporate issues of environment and social responsibility into financing.
He said that although banks lent to the oil industry, a lot of them did not adhere to? environmental standards and this had contributed to the problems in the Niger-Delta.
“In sustainable finance, we are looking at how we can incorporate issues on environment and social responsibility into financing, and one good example is the oil industry. Banks lend to the oil industry but a lot of oil companies do not adhere to strict environmental standards, and? this has been part of the problems in the Niger-Delta”, he added.
He said that banks acceptance that they would not lend to any company that did not meet certain environmental standards, would not only help people to make money but they could reproduce and recreate the environment in which they could continue to have long term profitability.
He explained that the oil companies’ long term survival was also dependent on their ability to have justice and equity for the environment in which they operated, with issues that related to power and other renewable energy.
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He said that, the nation’s banks would? not continue to take savings and deposits from Nigerians and then lend it to companies that would use the funds to destroy the environment, adding that the long term survival of the system depends on the protection of the ecosystem.
“The issue is less about money? but more about ethics and principles. It is basically mean, if? you want to borrow from banks, you will have to meet certain conditions and standards. You are not asking for different standards than what people apply when they undertake projects when they go and build projects in Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia or another part of the world. It is just that our environment has been taken for granted for too long,” he added.
Sanusi stated that the banking sector would take a leading role and ensure that organisations abide by strict environment standards and practices.
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He explain that everything was not about oil companies making money but it was about the environment been secured for the country to have agriculture and other important sectors, adding that not? everybody could? work in an oil company, but everybody could be a fisherman and farmer.
“If the land has gone and the water is gone and we all have our hope on the oil industry, then we really don’t have a future.? So if you protect the environment, you provide an opportunity for them to earn a living”, he added?? ?
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