L-R: (Extreme Left), Anthony Tuedon, Associate, LBS Sustainability Centre; (5th from left), Jonathan Ikeolumba, Facilitator IFRS 1 and 2, Flora Gabtony (middle), Ethics and Anthropology Facilitator; (3rd Right) Mary Ukoli, Programme Coordinator, with Cross section of participants
The 2025 first run of the ESG Materiality Assessment and Sustainability Reporting Programme delivered by Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre just ended with participants equipped with the knowledge and tools they need to operationalise materiality assessments and sustainability reporting in their organisations. It was a dynamic four-day certificate training held from April 22 to 25, 2025, purposed to skill participants on best practices that embed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into strategic decision-making and reporting processes.
Oreva Atanya, Director, LBS Sustainability Centre, affirms that materiality assessment has become a cornerstone for sustainability reporting across business sectors. “Emerging regulations and social issues in Nigeria and across the globe have made it imperative for businesses to understand their material issues, assess them properly and feed the right information gleaned from their assessments into their sustainability reporting.” She added, “Asides compliance, many businesses will lose their social licenses if they fail to understand what is material to their businesses and how to communicate their efforts in a manner that is transparent and honest devoid of greenwashing. With very scarce management knowledge and training on the know-what and know-how in our local business environment, we re-engineered this programme, now in its third year, to train management and sustainability professionals on the rudiments of the best approaches to Sustainability Materiality and Reporting.”
The programme provided participants drawn from various industries a comprehensive introduction to corporate sustainability, ESG principles, and the evolving landscape of sustainability reporting standards such as GRI, IFRS S1 & S2. It emphasised the business case for sustainability, practical application of materiality assessments, and how to determine and report material issues using global frameworks. The sessions also highlighted ethical challenges in ESG reporting and the importance of organisational readiness, collaboration, and performance tracking for impactful sustainability outcomes.
Jonathan Ikeolumba, Facilitator on IFRS S1 and S2 Disclosure Standards, facilitating a session
High point of the programme was a special guest facilitator visit from Dr Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, Member, International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) who threw practical insights on how to align sustainability reporting frameworks, and feed them into the IFRS1 and 2, offering a rich mix of practical and insightful sessions, helping the participants connect the dots on key issues from Sustainability Reporting in Practice: The IFRS S1 & S2 Disclosure Standards, to The Business Case for Sustainability, and Sustainability Reporting Principles and Trends, and even more.
We are grateful to our esteemed lineup of programme facilitators, led by Oreva Atanya, Head, Sustainability, Lagos Business School, and industry experts namely :Dr Paul Appiah-Konadu, CSR and Sustainability Expert, Lagos Business School; Eunice Sampson, Partner, Climate Change & Sustainability Services, EY West Africa; Sylke Jellema, Business & Sustainability Expert, Lagos Business School; Adewole Lawal, ESG and Sustainability Expert; Kingson Elendu, Sustainability Reporting Advisor; Flora Gabtony, Resource Person, Ethics and Anthropology; and Jonathan Ikeolumba, Facilitator on IFRS S1 and S2 Disclosure Standards, who made the sessions worthwhile.
Lagos Business School is Africa’s leading management education institution and the LBS Sustainability Centre is a leading knowledge centre that brings together the theory and practice on business and sustainability for the advancement of performance and development outcomes. For more information about the initiatives and upcoming events by the Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre, please contact sustainabilitycentre@lbs.edu.ng. Also, visit our website to sign up for the next run of the programme to elevate your knowledge and competency on ESG Materiality Assessment and Sustainability Reporting. https://sustainabilitycentre.lbs.edu.ng/
