FirstBank harps on corporate governance to drive sustainability

FirstBank has intensified its drive for ethical development in an effort to encourage sustainability and improve long term plans in the banking sector. The Acting Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, FirstBank, Olayinka Ijabiyi stated this during the 2025 CFA society Nigeria universities ethics challenge, reaffirming the bank’s commitment to sponsor the initiative. “We’ve been […]

FirstBank has intensified its drive for ethical development in an effort to encourage sustainability and improve long term plans in the banking sector.

The Acting Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, FirstBank, Olayinka Ijabiyi stated this during the 2025 CFA society Nigeria universities ethics challenge, reaffirming the bank’s commitment to sponsor the initiative.

“We’ve been sponsoring this now since 2016, which makes it a 9-year old sponsorship and we are not stopping any time soon.  The fact that we believe that ethics is the anchor of corporate governance and without good corporate governance you don’t have good institutions, private, public, everywhere.

“Our belief also is that when you start to do ethics, you are not just talking business, you are talking sustainability, long term. It is when you are an ethical organisation that you can survive long term in any business that you are in,” he said.

He emphasized the need for a relationship between the institution and universities to identify and prepare undergraduates on the ethical compliance in the workspace in the future.

“Where else to capture the leaders of tomorrow, the future people who will take our country, who will take our organisations, who will take our everyday forward. It’s at the university level.

“So this university ethics competition by the CFA is well thought out and that’s where we are going to capture them. When they understand this, when they understand the importance of ethics, they become ambassadors and can go out there and start practising what they have learnt,” he said.

 

 

Earlier, the president, CFA Society Nigeria, Razaq Ahmed said the challenge was organised to encourage students to think about ethical dilemmas, strengthen their decision-making frameworks and cultivate the values that will guide their conduct throughout their careers.

 

 

“This annual competition reinforces one of our core commitments as a society; promoting integrity, ethical leadership and professionalism among the next generation of finance and investment professionals,” he said.

 

 

He added that this year’s edition witnessed an expansion to 31 institutions including a university from Cote d Ivoire.

 

 

“This is a meaningful step toward broader regional engagement and collaboration across the African investment profession,” he said.

 

University of Benin scored 82.3 per cent  to emerge as the winner of the challenges, earning N1.5m while University of Nigeria, Nsukka got 81.9 percent to finish second receiving N1m and Covenant University recorded 80.6 percent finishing third, carting home N750,000.