Ebere Nwoji
AIICO Insurance Plc, has expressed its commitment towards achieving the 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the federal government by the year
2030.
The underwriting firm said it would be doing this through much more
commitment to the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues around it.
The ESG is a framework used to assess various sustainability and ethical issues.
While Environmental focuses on a company's impact on the planet including how businesses manage energy use, waste, pollution, and compliance with environmental regulations; Social refers to a company's relationship with employees, suppliers, customers, and communities including issues like human rights, diversity, equity, and employee safety.
Governance concerns leadership, executive pay, audits, internal controls, shareholder rights, and strong governance that ensures a company operates ethically and transparently.
On the other hand, SGDs are set of 17 global goals established by the United Nations in 2015, designed to address pressing global challenges by 2030.
AIICO said to achieve the goal, it would be showing more commitment to ESG issues around it.
In her presentation recently at a one-day training workshop organised by the underwriting company for members of the Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors (NAIPE), in Lagos, its Head, Corporate Responsibility, and Sustainability, Mrs. Abimbola Shobanjo, highlighted the company's commitment to ESG and contribution to SDGs.
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She said AIICO introduced Climate-smart initiatives, Green office practices and sustainable resource management such as calculating baseline emissions, reducing paper consumption as well as adopting hybrid work arrangements aimed at protecting the environment.
She hinted at the company's upcoming employee engagement survey to include a diversity and inclusion section, community programmes and outreach (CSR initiatives like health, education, financial inclusion).
She listed three key areas that ESG matters including investor interest, long-term business value and regulatory pressure. According to her, increasingly, investors prioritise companies that show a strong commitment to ESG as they tend to be more sustainable and lower risk.
On regulatory pressure, she said international standards like the UN SDGs, UNEP
Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI), and the UN Global Compact, were driving companies to take action, adding that AIICO has resolved to ensure that it plays along this line.
