By Moses Nosike

Prof. Chris Ogbechie, Professor of Strategic Management and the Dean at Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, who was a keynote speaker at the Association of Sustainability Professionals of Nigeria’s inaugural induction ceremony in Lagos, has said that sustainability has become more strategic for organisations because it is a big driver for innovation.

Ogbechie, who spoke on the theme: “Importance of professionalizing sustainability in Nigeria”, charged the practitioners to brace up and create the necessary opportunity that would enable organisations give more recognition to the sustainability sector.

“Practitioners need to level up and have a great necessary impact that would ensure that professionals are elevated to the board level where decisions concerning the organisations are taken. This will help deepen the sector and reposition the industry”.

The ASPN had its first induction ceremony in Lagos on August 12, 2021.

The induction ceremony themed, “Together we can and will deliver a sustainable Nigeria” was held in Lagos. During the event, the organisation inducted new members to the institute as part of its vision to support the positioning of Nigeria as a sustainable nation by encouraging more professionals and citizens to incorporate sustainability in their personal and professional lives.

Dr Kenneth Amaeshi, the President of ASPN who is also the Director of Scaling Business in Africa Consortium at the University of Edinburgh Business School, United Kingdom, said that the association is happy to be inducting its first set of members. “Our induction ceremony is a major milestone for us being the maiden edition. We also consider this a major milestone in Nigeria in view of our role in nation building.

In addition, the association’s Director of Communications, Mrs. Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan said, “at ASPN, we are convinced that our dream to set professional ethics standards for sustainability professionals, drive best practices and long-term thinking amongst individuals and businesses will go a long way to promote sustainable development in Nigeria. She noted that 44 individuals who have completely met the criteria of membership were inducted as Members, Associate Members, Full Members and Fellows of the association.

The Association of Sustainability Professionals of Nigeria (ASPN) is a non-profit organisation established in August 2019 and officially launched in November 26, 2020 to redefine and improve the practice and profession of sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria.

In the same vein, Vice President, ASPN, Ini Abimbola, said, “today we are having inaugural induction of  members and fellows of the association. The Association came up as a result of the fact that we have been having this conversation around sustainability for so long in Nigeria, but it also became imperative that a formalised body of people who are credible practitioners was also formed.

As we see it, is normal with everything when things begin to trend  everybody begins to jump on the bang wagon. Now everybody is CSR specialist or sustainability practitioner. It was important to be able to differentiate the wheat from the chaff, and that is why this association was birthed.