In order to promote sustainable development in Nigeria’s private sector, Sahara Group has partnered the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Pearl Uzokwe, Director, Governance and Sustainability, Sahara Group will be providing insight on how the private sector can become the engine room for driving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at OECD’s forthcoming Week on Private Finance for Sustainable Development in France.
Speaking ahead of the event, Uzokwe said “We are beginning to see a paradigm shift in the way the private sector tackles societal issues. Businesses are not islands and as such cannot succeed in a failing world. It is no longer okay to operate solely for revenue generation. Societal issues are both business issues and opportunities. Sahara Group remains committed to partnering with the public sector, government and civil society towards the attainment of sustainable solutions. “
The forthcoming event is a specialized policy dialogue being promoted by the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation and will have business leaders, investors, senior policy makers from governments, civil society, trade unions, parliaments and international organisations in attendance.
Nairametrics had reported that Nigerian Bank’s total lending to the private sector from Q1 2018 to Q3 2018 stood at N15.5 trillion as at September 30 2018. This was disclosed in a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on selected Banking Sector Data.
Perhaps as a reflection of the fragile macroeconomic conditions, on a quarter on quarter basis, growth was negative for the first two quarters of 2018. Q1 credit stood at N15.6 trillion, then dropped to N15.3 trillion in the second quarter of 2018, before rebounding slightly to N15.5 trillion in the third quarter of 2018.
What sector got the most funding?
The oil and gas sector got a lion percentage of credit for the first three quarters. Credit to the oil and gas space (both as an industry and a subset of the services sector) stood at 21.92% of total credit granted in the first quarter of 2018, 22.52% of total credit granted in the second quarter of 2018 and 23% of credit granted in the third quarter of 2018.
About Sahara Group
Sahara group was founded in August 1996 by Cole alongside Ade Odunsi and Tope Shonubi. The company had its origins in the business of trading petroleum products, but has since expanded into the upstream, midstream, power and infrastructure sectors. Sahara Group has operations in over 38 countries across Africa, Asia, Middle East and Europe.
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