Fair Finance Nigeria (FFNG), a coalition of civil society organisations, has called on Nigerian banks to overhaul their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) frameworks to meet international benchmarks. The appeal followed the release of the coalition's ESG Policy Assessment report in Abuja on Thursday, April 23, 2026. Member organisations include Oxfam, BudgIT, Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Connected Development (CODE), STEPS and Policy Alert. The assessment evaluated Access Bank, Standard Chartered, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Zenith Bank against more than 400 global sustainability criteria. The average score across the four banks was 1.7 out of 10, with climate action scoring an average of 0.9 out of 10. Internal policies on labour rights, gender equality and anti-corruption showed relatively stronger performance.
Auwal Rafsanjani, Executive Director of CISLAC, stated the 2012 Nigerian Sustainability Banking Principles (NSBP) were no longer effective and had enabled weak sustainability practices. He highlighted zero performance on tax transparency, with banks failing to disclose country-by-country revenues or financing activities in tax havens. This lack of disclosure, he argued, contravenes Anti-Money Laundering (AML) frameworks and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) guidelines. Tijani Ahmed, Country Director of Oxfam Nigeria, speaking through Programme Manager Henry Ushie, described the climate and tax transparency scores as unacceptable. He noted that while Standard Chartered scored the highest at 2.7, this largely reflected commitments from its global headquarters, with unclear local implementation in Nigeria. Ahmed stressed that banks are profiting from high-impact sectors without accountability for environmental and social consequences. The coalition urged regulatory bodies, National Assembly committees and bank executives to establish a multi-stakeholder roundtable to revise the national ESG framework. Francis Useni, Special Assistant to the EFCC Chairman on Regulatory Compliance, welcomed the report and called for greater collaboration between financial institutions and law enforcement.
The banks' average score of 1.7 out of 10 on global ESG standards exposes a systemic failure to align profit with public responsibility. While Standard Chartered scored higher, its performance is tied to foreign commitments, not verifiable local action in Nigeria. The zero rating on tax transparency directly undermines efforts to curb illicit financial flows from the country. Nigerian banks cannot claim sustainability leadership while remaining opaque on climate, human rights and revenue disclosure.
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