Lagos, Nigeria - Nigerian banks may deny financial support to companies involved in the depletion of the environment, as part of efforts to promote and preserve the country's ecosystem, according to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.

“Companies that deplete the environment will have to change their practices if they want to get finance, and we want the entirety of Nigerian banking sector to take that position,” the Access bank boss told journalists shortly after a closed-door Roundtable for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) on sustainable Finance-Challenges and Opportunities held over the weekend in Lagos.

The CEO Roundtable was the climax of the three-day Sustainable Finance Week, organized by the bank, UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEPFI) and FMO, the Dutch Development Bank, among others.

“Let me be frank with you. I have written and said that it is impossible to justify, even with the poverty argument, why businesses should be conducted in a way that destroyed the ecosystem. If by virtue of the capital that is entrusted in our hands by Nigerian depositors, we can get people to change the way they perhaps explore hydro-carbon resources, we will do so.

“For me it is less about having a quarrel with an oil company and more about using the leverage to change the way the oil companies operates. We don’t want people to cease producing value in Nigeria, we want to use our influence and our capital to make them do so in a sustainable way,” Aig-Imoukhuede said.

Pana 12/11/2011