REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT IN NIGERIA

Socially responsible Investment (SRI) is an investment objective that takes into consideration the long-term impact of investment by considering the environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria to generate long-term societal impact and competitive financial returns. In the US alone over Fourteen trillion dollars have been invested in the country according to SRI strategies. This paper analyses the important components of ESG factors, and its importance to SRI. The basic components of ESG factors such as economic factors but not profit only motives that may lead only to short-term destruction of the company, social issues which amongst other issues takes into consideration labour matters and corporate governance factors. The paper further discuss different approaches to effectually adopting internationally acceptable ESG objectives in order to attract SRI funds and drawing lessons from other jurisdictions, examines the position in Nigeria and modalities for developing a positive statutory and policy framework for creating an enabling environment for attracting SRI funds into Nigerian economy.