By Abiodun JIMOH
The Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) and Corporate Reporting Academy are targeting boardrooms and senior management in their forthcoming Global Executive Training Programme in London, with a focus on preparing decision-makers for the emerging era of sustainability, climate and ESG reporting.
The five-day programme will hold from September 21 to 25, 2026, under the theme, “Building Capacity for the New Era of Public and Private Sector Accountability, Climate, Finance, and ESG Reporting.”
The organisers are targeting members of the National Assembly, heads of agencies, chief executive officers, board members and senior executives of private sector organisations, senior public sector officials, accountants general and auditors, directors of finance in government agencies, as well as sustainability professionals and officers.
Dr. Iheanyi Anyahara, former Coordinating Director, Directorates of Accounting Standards (Public Sectors) and Sustainability Reporting Unit at the FRC and now Founder of Regulatory Compliance Readiness Advisors Limited, said the programme was particularly important because senior executives must understand the reports they are required to approve.
According to him, organisations cannot effectively respond to emerging regulatory requirements when decision-makers lack sufficient understanding of the issues being presented to them.
“We are building capacity for senior executives in sustainability reporting in order not to have the washing up in boxing,” Anyahara said.
He said the training would also cover green financing and climate change, areas that are becoming increasingly relevant to organisations operating in Nigeria.
“In the area of climate change, you know, for instance, in the Climate Change Act, there are requirements in Sections 24 and 32 that every entity that has about 50 employees and more should have a climate officer,” he said.
Anyahara explained that the training would bring these issues directly to senior executives so that they would have the knowledge necessary to supervise the work of their technical teams.
“So we are bringing all these in for senior executives, so that when their subordinates prepare the report, they should have a good knowledge of what to approve,” he said.
He said the programme was based on the understanding that sustainability and climate reporting could no longer be treated as technical matters restricted to specialised departments.
Instead, the issues increasingly require the attention of boards, chief executives and senior public officials because of their implications for organisational risk, accountability, finance and access to funding.
Anyahara identified sustainable reporting, green finance and technology as key components of a holistic approach to organisational management.
“Sustainable reporting, green finance and technology are critical potent factors that move an organisation from a holistic point of view,” he said.
He noted that many organisations traditionally approached enterprise risk management largely from a financial perspective.
“Most enterprise risk management, for instance, focuses only on finance. But when you embed sustainability in real practice, it takes a holistic view of an organisation’s risks, including climate and other sustainability-related issues, and, of course, green financing,” he said.
The London programme follows an earlier executive training programme in Nairobi, which Anyahara said recorded participation from people across different sectors.
He said the response was so encouraging that participants requested that the programme be held regularly.
“The Nairobi one was the first one. When we were doing it, we were afraid that we were not going to make it. But the response and the participation were very overwhelming,” he said.
He added that participants also called for the programme to be extended to Nigeria.
The London programme is expected to attract international speakers, including representatives of standard-setting organisations and practitioners who have worked in the field.
“As we speak today, we have not less than 40 people registered, and we are bringing speakers from the standard setters and other practitioners who have passed through this to share their experience,” he said.
The partnership with the FRC, Anyahara said, was based on the Corporate Reporting Academy’s experience and track record.
“FRC identified us based on our pedigree, based on our trajectory in the market, and they are collaborating with Corporate Reporting Academy to ensure that the organisation, the quality and the resource people are top-notch,” he said.
The programme is expected to provide participants with the knowledge required to engage more effectively with technical teams, evaluate sustainability and climate-related reports and make better-informed institutional decisions.
