CEM REPORT, CORPORATE EVENTS | Renown Economist and Principal Consultant at BAA Consult, Dr Biodun Adedipe has admonished risk managers to begin to be committed to building digital and agile organizations as the sure way to home the sustainability of those organizations.
Dr Adedipe delivered the keynote speech titled ‘ESG and Sustainability in a Digital Age: Managing the Risks and Leveraging the Opportunities for Global Positioning and Relevance’ at the 10th year anniversary and induction ceremony of the Association of Enterprise Risk Management Professionals held on the 25th November 2023 at the Bankers House, Adeola Hopewell, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The event was graced by other eminent personalities in the private and government organizations. they include Former Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga, Director of Risk Management at CBN, Blaise Ijebor, Former MD/CEO NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Prof. Pius Oladeji Olanrewaju and others.
Dr Biodun Adedipe defined Risk as a ‘measurable uncertainty’, noting that risks abound in whatever endeavor man engage in and in whatever changes in the entire space of business especially in the banking sector where digitization has rocked tremendous disruptions.
Adedipe described the digital world as a broad terminology that speaks to the digital technologies that have been developed and how they have been applied to different aspects of our lives, which has meant changes in the way we live – making choices, acting on those choices and dealing with the results or consequences of those choices.
“For example, the pursuit of operational efficiency has led to the creation and adoption of digital platforms that enable end-to-end process digitization. This, by all means, triggers new risks (especially cyber-risks) that require building new capacities to understand, measure, price and mitigate”; Adedipe said.
He emphatically charged risk managers to concentrate on building digital and agile organizations since sustainability is about staying power. “Being digital and agile is to constantly challenge existing assumptions, seeking better ways to do things and to deliver better results faster than ever”.
Mr. Godson Ikiebey, an ESG, Sustainable Finance and Sustainable Development Advisor spoke on ‘Sustainability in the Financial and the Real Sectors’. He defined sustainability as the capacity to create long-term value through a comprehensive focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. He noted that making sustainability an integral part of a company’s business strategy delivers the potential of very real benefits across the triple bottom-line of People, Planet and Prosperity.
He highlighted some of the sustainability issues facing the financial sector today to include delivering on public commitments, transparency, indirect social & ethical risks, stakeholder engagement & communication, indirect environmental impacts, environmental management, climate change, ethical conduct, bribery & corruption, employee well-being, and cybersecurity & data privacy.
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He therefore considers sustainable finance as any form of finance integrating environmental and social considerations into business (portfolio management, products / services, investment decision-making, risk management and disclosure) leading to increased investments in longer term and sustainable activities. This, he said counts investment strategies ranging from being responsible towards climate and people (‘do no harm’) all the way to generating impact (‘impact investing’).
Dr Blaise Ijebor in his goodwill remarks, underscored the role that risk managers need to play to aid the needed development in Nigeria which is to direct the sequence with which things are done in Nigeria for development aided results.
“I believe strongly that Nigeria need Risk Managers who are up on their feet and who would speak the truth to this country, because most often, our challenge is not that we don’t know what to do, it is that we are not doing things in the sequence that they should be done.
“We keep doing things out of sequence, that is why we don’t get the full benefits of some of the investments we make in this country”; Dr Ijebor said.
Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim who is recently appointed as the pioneer Chairman of Global Emeritus Risk and Compliance Professionals, congratulated AERMP for the progress made so far while giving credit to the role the risk department of NDIC played in helping the corporation navigate some risks it faced in the past.
Dr Olusegun Aganga congratulated AERMP on their 10th year anniversary and encourage risk managers to consider their role important for the progress of the society
