…sponsors 2026 SPIN inaugural conference

By Moses Nosike

FirstBank, West Africa’s premier financial institution and the leading financial inclusion service provider, played a major role sponsoring 2026 inaugural conference of the Sustainability Professionals Institute of Nigeria (SPIN), reaffirming its longstanding commitment to sustainable finance, responsible business practices, and stakeholder-driven value creation.

The maiden edition of the conference organised by SPIN at Eko Hotel & Suites, Lagos, Thursday with the theme: “The Adaptive Enterprise: Sustainability Strategies for Challenging Times,” brought together sustainability professionals, business leaders, policymakers, regulators, financial institutions, academics, development partners, and other key stakeholders that discussed practical approaches for building resilient, adaptive, and future-ready organisations amid increasingly complex economic, environmental, and social challenges.

As a demonstration of its leadership in sustainability and corporate responsibility, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank, Olusegun Alebiosu, Guest Speaker at the conference was represented by the Executive Director, Risk Directorate, FirstBank, Bisi Olagbami who presented the speech of Alebiosu.

Commenting on FirstBank’s support for the conference, Mr. Olusegun Alebiosu said: “Sustainability is central to our vision of building a resilient institution that creates enduring value for all stakeholders. It underpins long-term economic growth, institutional resilience, and shared prosperity. In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, organisations must create value not only for shareholders but also for society and the environment. We are therefore proud to support SPIN’s inaugural sustainability conference as part of our commitment to advancing responsible business practices and fostering meaningful dialogue on sustainable development”. 

According to him, “Through collaborations such as this, we aim to contribute to shaping a future where innovation, inclusion, and environmental stewardship drive sustainable progress for businesses, communities, and the nation at large.”

“As an institutional member of SPIN, FirstBank’s sponsorship of the conference aligns with its broader sustainability agenda, which champions financial inclusion, economic empowerment, and strong corporate governance. The Bank has consistently demonstrated its commitment to sustainability through initiatives that support businesses, communities, and institutions in creating lasting positive impact”.

“For us in FirstBank On the risk side, we have just finalised our Green Product Credit Policy, which aligns our lending standards to our Climate Policy, our Environmental and Social Management System, IFC Performance Standards, and IFRS S1/S2. It includes sector-specific screening for oil and gas, power, construction, and agriculture, so that ESG due diligence is embedded in how we underwrite credit, not layered on afterward. In 2025 alone, we screened 505 corporate transactions for ESG risk valued at over N10 trillion, up from 237 transactions worth over N3 trillion in 2024”.

Contininuing, he said, “On the growth side, we are expanding a suite of climate finance products Alternative Energy Finance for individuals, Solar Financing for SMEs, and a green mobility addendum to our vehicle finance offering because the transition to cleaner energy in Nigeria is, first and foremost, a financing gap, and banks are best placed to close it”.

In addition, the Executive Director, Risk Directorate, Firstbank, Mr Biyi Olagbami, during the session on the theme: “Sustainable Finance as a Catalyst for Resilient Growth”, said, “It sits at the heart of what banking is meant to do. Finance was never meant to be neutral; every loan, every credit line, every investment decision quietly finances a version of the future”. 

Olagbami said that our task as risk and finance professionals is to make sure that future is one the economy, and the environment, can sustain. At FirstBank, we sit on this from two vantage points at once. As a 130-plus-year-old institution, we carry the weight of being a systemically important bank in Nigeria what we finance shapes entire sectors, with gross earnings of N3.4 trillion in the year just ended underscoring the scale of that responsibility. And as a risk function, we are increasingly finding that ESG risk is not a side conversation to credit risk; it is becoming a core input into it. A client’s exposure to climate transition, to environmental liability, to social license to operate, is now a material determinant of whether that credit is resilient over its tenor, not just at origination”.

He said, “When we talk about sustainable finance as a catalyst for resilient growth, I would frame it simply: it is about pricing the future correctly today for our clients, our shareholders, and the economy we all depend on”.

Also speaking on the conference, President of the Sustainability Professionals Institute of Nigeria, Professor Kenneth Amaeshi, said, “The inaugural conference reflects the institute’s commitment to advancing sustainability beyond compliance and positioning it as a core element of organisational leadership”.

Amaeshi said, “Participants were engaged in insightful discussions covering a broad range of topics, including adaptive leadership, resilient business models, sustainable finance, ESG reporting, climate resilience, innovation, corporate governance, and long-term value creation”. 

Other distinguished speakers include Ibrahim Shelleng, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Climate Finance and Stakeholder Engagement and others.