By Juliet Umeh

The Sustainability Professionals Institute of Nigeria, SPIN, has urged the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRC, to confine its role to regulating sustainability reporting, insisting that sustainability practice is broader than corporate disclosure and should not be treated as an accounting discipline.

The institute, while reaffirming its support for Nigeria’s adoption of the International Sustainability Standards Board, ISSB, Sustainability Disclosure Standards, IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, expressed concern over what it described as attempts to equate the standards with sustainability itself.

In a statement made available to Vanguard, SPIN said: “Reporting is the final expression of sustainability performance. Organisations cannot credibly disclose what they have not first governed, measured, managed and improved. As Nigeria moves toward mandatory disclosure, our objective must be better sustainability performance, not merely better reports.”

The institute stressed that reporting standards only provide a framework for communicating sustainability performance and should not be mistaken for the discipline itself.

According to SPIN, “Sustainability encompasses governance, environmental stewardship, climate resilience, biodiversity, human rights, labour practices, stakeholder engagement, responsible investment, the circular economy, community development and long-term value creation. Reporting is not discipline.”

SPIN also maintained that IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 were developed to guide sustainability-related financial disclosures for investors and should be viewed as part of a wider sustainability ecosystem rather than a replacement for it.

It noted that globally recognised frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative, European Sustainability Reporting Standards, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines remain relevant to sustainability practice.

The institute further rejected suggestions that sustainability is principally an accounting function.

“Sustainability has always been multidisciplinary. It draws on environmental science, engineering, economics, finance, governance, law, public policy, climate science, community engagement, communications and risk management. No single profession can claim ownership of it,” SPIN stated.

It also cautioned the FRC against extending its mandate beyond corporate reporting.

“The FRC performs a critical statutory function in regulating corporate reporting. That role is important and necessary, but regulating corporate reporting is not the same as stewarding sustainability as a professional practice. Nor should a regulator cross the line into implementation or direct competition with the industry players it regulates,” the institute said.

SPIN urged stakeholders to promote broader sustainability education while reaffirming its commitment to working with government, regulators and the private sector to strengthen sustainability governance and responsible business conduct.

“Reports matter because they reflect reality. They do not replace it,” the institute insisted.