Access Bank Harps on Improved Awareness on Green Bond

Access Bank Plc has urged the federal government to increase awareness on green bond, saying Nigeria has the potential to dominate the market.

Speaking at a forum on Nigeria’s Green Bond Market Development programme that was hosted by the bank in Lagos, Access Bank’s Executive Director, Risk Management, Mr. Greg Jobome, stressed the need for more Nigerians to be carried along in the green bond market.

According to him it would be very helpful “if we involve the man on the street and they understand what the green bond is about, but if the government keeps it for experts, treasurers, dealers, analyst, they will miss it.

“We have to make it all encompassing because it is about sustainable development goals. It is about our children and the kind of world they will live in.

“The little steps we are taking now will hopefully lay the foundation blocks for our world.”

Furthermore, Jobome noted that with Green Bond occupying only 0.2 per cent of the global bond market, “we are not so far behind and we have the opportunity than the rest of the world.”

He added: “The potential is bigger for Nigeria and Africa, so if we do it right, we will actually dominate the statistics.”

According to him, there are huge projects that would directly impact the masses that the government can undertake with the proceeds of a Green Bond offering.

“There are a lot of things that t we can do now that rest of the world, particularly the developed countries cannot do.

“If you build a mass transit in the United Kingdom, the impact will not be up to one percent of the impact of the same infrastructure in Lagos.”