Nigeria is the only nation in Africa chosen to introduce IFRS S1 and IFRS S2-FRC.

Article Synopsis

• Nigeria is the only nation in Africa to have been chosen to introduce IFRS S1 and IFRS S2.
• For the benefit of accountants and auditors who report on sustainability and climate change, an adoption readiness strategy has been developed.
• The IFRS standards, which are used in 140 nations, are meant to help businesses give comprehensive, useful information about sustainability and climate change to the world’s capital markets and create a common language for sustainability-related disclosures.

According to Ambassador Shuaibu Adamu, the Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) Nigeria, only Nigeria and not any other African nation has been chosen to introduce IFRS S1 and IFRS S2.

In Lagos, NGX Regulation Limited, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of Nigeria organized a 3-day virtual workshop on IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards for businesses and investors. Adamu made this statement during the workshop.

The development of awareness and capacity, he continued, had been crucial to the introduction of these standards.

He continued by saying that building awareness and capacity had been crucial to the implementation of these standards.

• Adamu stated:“It is encouraging that African countries are coming together to collaborate in this capacity-building programme because Africa does not want to be left behind. We want to thank NGX RegCo for agreeing to partner with us and they have been so far worth partners in this endeavour. ISSB wants implementation of these standards globally and they have taken time to ensure Africa is not left behind”.

The 3-day virtual workshop on IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards for businesses and investors in the capital market was created, according to Ms. Tinuade Awe, Chief Executive Officer of NGX RegCO, to aid investors in understanding the fundamental ideas of the SASB standards and assisting them in making wise decisions based on the standards.

Preparation for adoption strategy

Awe pointed out that NGX RegCo is still dedicated to fostering a just, open, and orderly market that thrives on timely access to all the information necessary to safeguard investors in the Nigerian capital market.

• She said, “As a member of the NGX Group, our commitment towards driving sustainability and climate disclosures dates back in time and continues as we partner with organisations such as the FRC and so we are pleased to have these sessions as they are important, and we look forward to having more collaborations with the FRC as well as other organisations”.
• Awe added that there is a strategy for adoption readiness that is designed to assist accountants and auditors with sustainability and climate reporting.
• “The adoption readiness working group is a creation of the FRC supported by the ISSB where a group of people is being put together to advise or help the FRC on a roadmap for getting to the adoption of these standards to work in Nigeria”, she said.

140 nations use IFRS as their accounting standard.

Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, a board member of the ISSB, also spoke during the discussion. She noted that 140 countries use the IFRS standards, and that their goal is to enable businesses to provide comprehensive, decision-useful sustainability and climate information to international capital markets and create a common language for sustainability-related disclosures.

• “What we have done is adopt a building block approach which allows for regulators to put in place a connection between not just the IFRS standards, but also existing local multi-stakeholder information needs and local standards that currently exist. All together to meet the information needs of investors globally.
• The idea is to make things simpler so that on one hand, S1 and S2 are interoperable with jurisdictive requirements like you have in Europe, for example, ESRS, and adapted to meet broader multi-stakeholder needs that may look familiar like the GRI Standards so that essentially, a comprehensive foundation of disclosures is provided. The S2 is what will be implemented first”, Nnoli-Edozien said.