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A new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report has warned that global efforts to curb climate change remain dangerously inadequate, with the planet on course for a 2.3°C to 2.5°C temperature rise – a scenario that poses serious economic and environmental risks for Africa’s emerging markets.

The findings, released ahead of the COP30 Leaders Summit in Belém, Brazil, highlight the widening gap between climate pledges and real progress. The report warns that even if all current commitments are fulfilled, emissions will still exceed the levels required to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal, leaving developing regions like Africa particularly vulnerable.

Climate campaign group 350.org has urged African governments and financial institutions to leverage COP30 as a platform to attract investment in renewable energy and climate-resilient infrastructure – and to phase out dependence on fossil fuels.

‘This report confirms what millions already feel: governments are still failing to deliver on their promises,’ said Savio Carvalho, Head of Regions at 350.org. ‘COP30 must be a turning point where leaders stop making excuses, phase out fossil fuels, and scale up renewable energy in a way that is fast, fair, and equitable.’

With over 600 million Africans still lacking access to electricity, the report’s findings highlight both the risks of climate inaction and the continent’s potential to lead in clean energy innovation.

Experts say that channeling finance into solar, wind, and hydro projects, along with carbon-smart agriculture, could unlock new growth sectors and reduce long-term climate vulnerability.

Ilan Zugman, managing director, 350.org, Latin America, emphasised that protecting biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon – and Africa’s own Congo Basin – must be at the center of sustainable finance agendas. ‘Indigenous and traditional communities are safeguarding the ecosystems that sustain our planet. Investment strategies must recognize their leadership and protect these vital regions,’ he said. From the Pacific, Jacynta Fa’amau, 350.org’s pacific campaigner, warned that climate change is already disrupting small island economies.

‘Every fraction of a degree counts for survival. COP30 must urgently drive the phase-out of fossil fuels and ramp up global support for renewables,’ she said.

African economies, from Nigeria to Kenya and South Africa, are expected to use COP30 to push for climate finance reforms, greater access to green bonds, and stronger international support for adaptation and loss-and-damage mechanisms.

Analysts note that the transition offers a business opportunity worth billions, if Africa can align public policy with private investment to build a low-carbon future.

The International Cocoa Diplomacy (ICD) and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) have called for increased value addition in Nigeria’s cocoa sector, stressing the need to shift from raw exports to local processing and manufacturing to expand the country’s share of the $140 billion global chocolate market.

Speaking at a pre-event press conference ahead of the Eko Chocolate Show 2025, stakeholders said that boosting domestic cocoa processing would create jobs, stimulate industrial growth, and support Nigeria’s broader non-oil export agenda.

They explained that integrating the show into the Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF) would help spotlight Nigeria’s potential to compete globally in chocolate production and related industries.

Queen Angelique-Monet Gureje-Thompson, the Yeyeluwa Olori of Eti-Oni and Co-Founder of ICD, noted that although West Africa produces about 70 percent of the world’s cocoa, less than 2 percent is transformed into finished products such as chocolate.

Gureje-Thompson said bridging this gap through local manufacturing and knowledge transfer could unlock billions in economic value for Nigeria and the continent.

‘West Africa produces 70 percent of global cocoa, Nigeria ranks as the 4th largest producer globally, less than 2 percent of African cocoa is processed into finished products or chocolate, and there’s a massive value addition potential worth billions in economic impact,’ she said.

Gureje-Thompson explained that the Eko Chocolate Show 2025, organised by the ICD in partnership with the LCCI, is designed to promote this goal by linking cocoa, culture, and commerce under one platform.

‘The event, which will be held as part of the LITF, will feature exhibitions, film and arts festivals, and a royal symphony concert aimed at celebrating Nigeria’s cocoa heritage and advancing value addition across the sector,’ she said.

She added that this year’s Eko Chocolate Show, set to hold from 8th to 14th November, 2025, will form part of the activities lined up for the LITF, West Africa’s largest business exhibition organised by the LCCI. The fair, which attracts thousands of exhibitors and visitors annually, provides a platform for industries to showcase innovation, forge partnerships, and promote non-oil exports.

This edition, she said, will give special focus to cocoa and creative industries, underscoring their role in advancing Nigeria’s economic diversification agenda.

Abimbola Olashore, vice president of LCCI and chairman of the Trade Promotion Board, said the collaboration with ICD reflects the chamber’s vision to turn the LITF into a platform for partnership and innovation rather than mere buying and selling.

Olashore described the initiative as a step toward changing the narrative of Nigeria from an exporter of raw materials to a nation of producers.

He noted that by featuring initiatives such as the Eko Chocolate Show, the fair is expanding its scope to highlight sectors capable of transforming Nigeria’s economy through value addition, creativity, and export diversification.

‘If we don’t create the environment or showcase what we are doing, we cannot move beyond exporting raw produce,’ he said.

Also speaking, Sola Oluwadare, director of Trade Promotion at LCCI, described this year’s fair as a milestone edition that introduces new specialised segments such as the Eko Chocolate Show.

Oluwadare said the initiative marks a shift from the traditional trade exhibition format to a more inclusive festival-style fair that accommodates diverse sectors, from agriculture and manufacturing to technology and culture.

According to him, the 2025 edition aims to ‘create a platform that goes beyond trade to celebrate innovation, creativity, and enterprise across all classes of people and professionals.

Newcastle United’s chief commercial officer, Peter Silverstone, has left his role as part of a major operational review led by the club’s new chief executive, David Hopkinson.

Silverstone, who joined the Magpies in October 2022 from digital football platform OneFootball, is currently on gardening leave and is expected to take up a new role with Juventus later this year, according to reports from the Daily Mail. His departure is understood to have been amicable.

During his tenure, Silverstone played a key role in securing several major commercial partnerships, including a multi-year kit deal with Adidas, reportedly worth up to £40 million ($52.1 million) annually, and a recent sponsorship agreement with Visa. Before joining Newcastle, Silverstone spent more than six years at Arsenal, where he also served as chief commercial officer, helping to strengthen the club’s global brand and revenue streams. In addition to Silverstone’s exit, Chronicle Live reports that Newcastle’s director of people and talent, Dominica O’Neil, is also expected to leave as part of the restructuring process.

Hopkinson, who took over as CEO in September following the departure of Darren Eales for health reasons, has initiated a 100-day review of Newcastle’s operations.

The Canadian executive, formerly of Real Madrid and Madison Square Garden Sports, is assessing the club’s culture, strategy, and personnel to align with its long-term ambitions under the Saudi-backed ownership group.

The review is expected to lead to a series of high-profile appointments in the coming months, with Hopkinson reportedly aiming to boost Newcastle’s annual revenue by £100 million ($130 million) as the club seeks to establish itself among Europe’s elite both on and off the pitch.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has arraigned a woman, Elle Isaac Blessing Ojo, before Justice Akobi of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Kubwa, for allegedly forging a marriage certificate and passport stamps of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in a bid to fraudulently obtain a United Kingdom (UK) visa.

According to a statement by Demola Bakare, director, Public Enlightenment and Education/Spokesperson, ICPC, Ojo’s arraignment on Tuesday, followed a four-count charge filed against her under Charge No. CR/577/25, Federal Republic of Nigeria vs. Elle Isaac Blessing Ojo (F).

The ICPC told the court that the offences were committed around 2019 in Abuja.

The defendant was alleged to have forged a marriage certificate with registration number 024119/2017, purportedly issued by a marriage registry in Lagos, and used it as part of her supporting documents to apply for a UK visa.

Investigators further alleged that she fabricated UAE entry and exit stamps on her Nigerian international passport to create a false travel history, an act aimed at deceiving visa officials into believing she was a regular international traveller.

The Commission stated that her actions violate Sections 363 and 366 of the Penal Code and are punishable under Section 364, which deals with forgery and fraudulent use of forged documents.

One of the counts reads: ‘That you, Elle Isaac Blessing Ojo, in 2019 or thereabouts, at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did fraudulently present as genuine a forged marriage certificate purportedly emanating from Ikoyi Marriage Registry, Ikoyi-Lagos, when you had reason to believe it to be a forged document, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 366 and punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code Laws of the Federation.’

When the charges were read, Ojo pleaded not guilty to all four counts. She was represented by her counsel, C. A. Owo Ekele.

Fatima Abdullahi, lead counsel for the ICPC, informed the court that the Commission was fully prepared to proceed with trial and requested the court to fix a date for hearing. In response, the defence counsel applied for bail on liberal terms.

After listening to both parties, Akobi granted the defendant bail in the sum of ?2 million with two sureties in like sum.

One of the sureties must be a public servant not below Grade Level 15, while the second must be a resident of Abuja who owns landed property with a valid Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).

The sureties are also to provide copies of their passports and the C of O for verification.

The judge further ordered that Ojo be remanded in the Suleja Correctional Centre pending the fulfillment of her bail conditions.

The ICPC reiterated its determination to collaborate with embassies and international partners to curb visa-related fraud and bring perpetrators to justice.

In a landmark development for Kano State’s public enterprise sector, the Kano Agricultural Supply Company (KASCO) has remitted 60 percent of its 2024 annual profit-amounting to ?200.4 million-to the state government, marking the first such payment in over ten years.

Sanusi Bature, spokesperson to Governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf, made this disclosure, in a statement made available to journalists, on Wednesday, noted the remittance was formally presented to the Governor during the 33rd State Executive Council meeting held at the Government House, Kano.

Kabiru Sani Yakubu, managing director of the company, while, presenting a dummy cheque to Governor Yusuf, disclosed that the company recorded a total profit of N334 million for the 2024 financial year – the highest in its history since its establishment in 1991.

He described the achievement as a ‘historic milestone’ and a testament to the company’s renewed operational efficiency and financial discipline.

Yakubu credited the turnaround to the enabling environment created by Governor Yusuf’s administration, which restored confidence, improved transparency, and encouraged productivity among state-owned enterprises.

‘KASCO’s return to profitability was made possible through the governor’s support and the business-friendly policies that have revitalized our operations,’ he stated.

He further emphasised that the company’s success reflects a broader commitment to enhancing food security, promoting agricultural input distribution, and empowering local farmers across the state. According to him, KASCO has expanded its reach to serve thousands of farmers with affordable fertilizers, seeds, and other essential inputs in the last year.

In his response, Governor Yusuf congratulated KASCO’s management and staff for what he described as a ‘commendable comeback’ after years of underperformance. He noted that the company’s financial revival underscores his administration’s efforts to reform and reposition state-owned enterprises as viable contributors to Kano’s economy. ‘This remittance is not just a financial achievement-it is proof that with integrity, transparency, and good leadership, public institutions can thrive and deliver value to the people.

‘Our goal is to make Kano’s institutions self-reliant and accountable so they can serve the people more effectively,’ Governor Yusuf said. He assured that the state government will continue to provide policy support and oversight to ensure the sustainability of KASCO’s progress and that of other state-owned agencies.

Governor Yusuf reiterated his administration’s commitment to economic self-sufficiency, stressing that strengthening public enterprises remains a core strategy in diversifying Kano’s revenue base.

The development has been widely welcomed as a positive sign for Kano’s public sector reforms, particularly in reviving dormant or underperforming agencies. Analysts say KASCO’s profitability could inspire similar turnarounds in other state-owned enterprises if current governance reforms are sustained.

Founded in 1991, KASCO plays a vital role in the state’s agricultural value chain, supplying fertilizers, agrochemicals, and farming implements to boost food production and rural livelihoods. With this latest achievement, the company appears poised to reclaim its place as a cornerstone of Kano’s agricultural development and a model of public-sector efficiency.

In Dubai recently, a young Kenyan woman told me how her grandmother and mother relied on their version of Esusu to pay school fees, stock their shops, and weather hard seasons.

Listening to her, I was reminded of generations of African women, our continent’s original bankers, who built trust networks long before formal banks opened their doors to them.

They gave each other dignity, discipline, and hope.

That legacy deserves honour.

But it also demands evolution.

Because, as I told a senior executive later that evening, Esusu is not a wealth plan. It might actually be a poverty merry-go-round.

Yes, I said it. And before you get defensive, let me be clear: I respect what Esusu has meant to our people. It has history. It served a purpose. It still has value for some communities.

But if we are serious about building generational wealth, especially among African women, we must grow up, graduate, and move from circulating money to compounding and owning assets.

As Paul wrote in Scripture: ‘When I was a child, I spoke like a child. but when I became a man, I put childish things away.’

Esusu has had its season. But it cannot take us where we need to go next.

The history and benefits of Esusu

Esusu, also called ajo, tontine, susu, or rotating savings clubs, has deep roots across Africa and the diaspora.

It was a lifeline when banks were closed to many of our people. It gave market women dignity, provided small lump sums for trading, and taught discipline. For entrepreneurs with no access to credit, it was a safety net.

Even today, many groups run Esusu successfully, from office colleagues to cooperatives. They’ve stayed consistent for decades, and I applaud them.

Esusu taught us to save, to trust, to be accountable – no small achievement.

But let’s be honest about its limits

Esusu essentially circulates money, but it doesn’t grow money.

You contribute monthly; one person takes. Next month, another person takes it. At the end of the cycle, everyone has received exactly what they put in – minus transfer costs and inflation.

There is no multiplication. No compounding. No asset created.

At best, Esusu is a short-term relief plan. At worst, it locks us into decades of missed opportunity.

A modern dilemma

Not long ago, a senior C-suite executive told me she’d been part of the same Esusu group for nearly ten years.

She laughed and said, ‘It feels like a merry-go-round – no loss, but no growth either.’

The discipline was there, but the direction was missing.

She never quite knew what to do with the small lump sum that arrived once a year, useful but insignificant next to her main income.

Meanwhile, a businesswoman in her circle told me her monthly payout was often a lifesaver, helping her restock inventory or cover urgent costs.

Both women were right, and both revealed the same truth:

Esusu meets short-term needs, but it doesn’t build long-term wealth.

The real challenge is that most people, especially professionals, don’t know how to graduate from these informal circles into structured investments.

Without experience, access, or credible platforms, they stick to what’s familiar, even when it’s no longer fruitful.

The numbers don’t lie

Let’s make this real.

Scenario 1: 10 people contribute $1,000 each per month.

Traditional Esusu: one person gets $10,000 a year.

After five years, everyone has rotated through, and nothing has grown.

Now imagine the group pooled and invested instead:

$10,000 monthly = $120,000 a year.

In five years = $600,000 contributed.

With 8-12 per cent annual returns, it grows to $734,000-$817,000.

In ten years, that same group could transform $600,000 in pooled savings into over $2 million in assets, without earning a naira more, simply by investing instead of rotating.

Scenario 2: 100 people, $1,000 each

In a traditional Esusu, one person gets $100,000 while others wait.

After ten years, they’ve merely circulated $12 million, no growth, no real ownership.

But if that same group pooled and invested, the outcome would be radically different.

Those same contributions, $1.2 million annually, compounded at even 8-12 percent, could grow into $18 to $23 million.

Even conservative pooled investments, real estate joint ventures, balanced funds, and infrastructure bonds regularly deliver those returns.

That’s not speculative wealth; that’s disciplined, structured compounding. The same capital rotating in Esusu circles could be quietly building multi-million-dollar portfolios.

That’s $6 to $9 million in new wealth, created not by hustle or luck, but by strategy and time.

That’s the difference between circulating money and multiplying it. Between staying afloat and building empires.

Hotels. Land banks. Tech hubs. Schools. Generational assets, all within reach once we choose ownership over rotation.

My personal vision

This is the thought that birthed Radiant Collective Capital.

Ten years ago, I looked around and thought, ‘What if we took the Esusu principle of trust and turned it into structured investment?’

We began experimenting in 2020. By May 2025, Radiant Collective Capital was born, not just as a company, but as a movement: women moving from circulating to owning, from saving to scaling.

Yes, I sometimes wonder about lost time. But my focus is forward.

Because the opportunity cost of waiting another decade is far too great.

At Radiant Collective Capital, we’re aggregating small cheques to participate in big opportunities, deals once out of reach for individuals, now accessible through disciplined collaboration.

Where Esusu still works

Let’s be fair, Esusu still serves an important purpose for some groups:

Entry-level financial literacy.

Building savings discipline.

Creating accountability in low-trust economies.

Providing liquidity for micro-traders and community needs.

For these groups, Esusu remains relevant and much better than doing nothing. But for professionals, entrepreneurs, diaspora earners, and women with strong income potential, Esusu is not a strategy. It’s a stage.

It’s time to graduate.

From circulation to ownership

The next decade of African wealth must be collective, structured, and investment-driven.

That’s why we built Radiant Collective Capital, to channel the discipline Esusu gave us into something bigger:

OWN assets, not just circulate money.

GROW wealth through compounding returns.

LEAD by building portfolios that transform families, communities, and nations.

The power of compounding over 5, 10, or 20 years is astonishing.

If we don’t make the shift now, our lost opportunities will become our children’s inheritance gap.

My call to women

African women, especially market women, were the original bankers.

But now it’s time to evolve from daily collectors to capital creators.

Esusu taught us discipline.

Ownership will help us build a financially sustainable future. If Esusu kept us afloat yesterday, collective investment will make us unshakeable tomorrow.

So here’s my challenge:

Will you keep circulating money?

Or will you start multiplying it?

The next ten years will separate those who merely saved. from those who built legacies.

In 2025, Nigeria’s manufacturers are reaping the fruits of inflation. Profits are swelling, not because factories are producing more, but because they’re charging more.

When profit margins outpace the cost of sales, it usually signals one thing: prices have risen. And for many Nigerian manufacturers, that is the defining story of 2025.

A BusinessDay review of nine-month financial statements from selected listed companies reveals a clear pattern. Firms across both the consumer and industrial goods sectors have leveraged inflation to lift their prices, and, by extension, their revenues.

But this growth is driven more by pricing than productivity. Manufacturers are earning more not by selling greater volumes, but by selling the same goods at higher prices.

Take Nestlé Nigeria, for example. The company reported a 33 percent year-over-year increase in revenue for the nine months ended September 2025. Over the same period, its cost of sales rose by just 22 percent, resulting in a 58 percent increase in gross profit. Nestlé’s gross margin climbed to 37 percent in 9M 2025, up from 31 percent a year earlier.

Nestlé is not an isolated case. This pattern of rising revenues without a proportional spike in costs runs across the board. EBITDA margins tell a bigger story

Ordinarily, companies might justify higher prices as a response to rising operational expenses. But their EBITDA margins tell a different story. Nestlé’s EBITDA margin rose to 23.7 percent in 9M 2025, about 6.7 percentage points higher than the 17 percent recorded a year earlier.

The cement majors, Dangote, BUA, and Lafarge, show the same inflation-driven profitability. Their average EBITDA margins climbed to 44.5 percent in 9M 2025, up 12.2 percentage points from 32.3 percent in 2024. Isolating only their Nigerian operations, the combined average margin jumps even higher, to 49.2 percent, making them some of the biggest beneficiaries of Nigeria’s inflationary surge.

Although inflation has declined sharply in 2025, from around 30 percent in 2024 to 18.02 percent as of September 2025, manufacturers have still found room to raise prices aggressively. Some observers argue that, when adjusted for inflation, these gains are less impressive than they appear. However, data from some manufacturers show that prices have not only kept pace with costs, they have also outpaced them.

Using the average inflation rate of 22.2 percent recorded in the first nine months of 2025, the real margins tracked by BusinessDay have risen significantly. Nestlé’s real EBITDA margin in 9M 2025, for example, stands at 19.4 percent, compared with 12.8 percent in 2024 after adjusting for inflation.

It is widely understood that when prices rise faster than costs, a company’s margins improve.

Cement and beer are big winners

For cement makers, this effect is particularly pronounced. Dangote Cement’s gross margin, after factoring inflation, was 48.5 percent, almost 10 percentage points higher than the 39 percent recorded in 2024. Lafarge Africa’s real gross margin reached 47.8 percent, about 10 percentage points higher than the 37 percent recorded a year earlier. BUA Cement’s gross margin, post-inflation adjustment, stood at 41 percent.

The beer makers tell a similar story. Nigerian Breweries posted a gross margin of 40 percent in 9M 2025, up from 29.5 percent in the same period of 2024. After adjusting for inflation, its gross margin was 32.6 percent. With additional cost-cutting measures, the group’s operating margin jumped to 15.8 percent, from 3.8 percent in 9M 2024. Yet, not all sectors enjoy such pricing power. In more competitive markets, firms face limits in raising prices. Unilever’s gross margin, for example, remained steady at 41 percent between 9M 2024 and 9M 2025. Operational improvements, however, helped boost its operating margin to 20 percent, from 10 percent a year earlier.

Cadbury experienced modest gains. Its gross margin rose to 23.3 percent in 9M 2025, from 16.5 percent in 9M 2024, growth, but not at the same pace as other manufacturers.

Muda Yusuf, CEO of the Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprises, explains why: ‘Pricing power differs across sectors depending on demand elasticity. Firms in highly competitive consumer markets can’t easily raise prices without losing customers, and this compresses their margins.’

He adds, ‘But in sectors like cement, where demand is less elastic, companies can push prices up more easily.’

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has secured the conviction of Dare Adebowale Oladapo, a retired Deputy Director with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kwara State Directorate, for falsifying his age and illegally collecting salaries after his retirement date.

According to a statement by ICPC spokesperson Demola Bakare, the conviction was delivered on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, by Justice Ibrahim Yusuf of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin, under Charge No. KWS/64C/2022.

The case originated from a petition filed by Ilorin-based legal practitioner F. F. Ikebundu of Ayo Ajomole and Co., alleging that Oladapo manipulated his official records to extend his years of service in the public sector.

ICPC investigations revealed that the defendant falsified his date of birth, altering official records at the National Population Commission and in his service file at the Ministry. The aim, the Commission said, was to unlawfully prolong his tenure and continue earning salaries and allowances after his legitimate retirement period had elapsed.

Prosecuting counsel Kalu Ugbo and Zainab Moshood told the court that Oladapo’s actions enabled him to fraudulently receive unearned payments totalling ?1,233,258.95 between December 2019 and April 2020.

One of the charges detailed that the defendant made a false statement on oath in an affidavit dated February 15, 2012, in which he claimed his date of birth to be November 11, 1964 – contrary to his actual birth date of November 11, 1959.

According to the ICPC, this falsified information was used to manipulate his service record from the time of his employment in 1997.

The charges against him included falsification of official records and receipt of salaries through corrupt advantage, offences contrary to and punishable under Sections 19 and 25 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

After examining the evidence, Justice Yusuf found Oladapo guilty on Counts One and Two, which bordered on making false statements and conferring unfair advantage on himself. He was, however, discharged and acquitted on Count Three, which related to fraudulent receipt of salaries.

The court sentenced the former public servant to two years’ imprisonment with an option of ?100,000 fine on each count.

Yusuf also ordered Oladapo to refund the full amount of ?1,233,258.95 to the Federal Government, representing the salaries and allowances he illegally collected during his four-month overstay in service.

‘Following the ruling, the convict promptly complied with the court’s directive, paying the ?200,000 fine and refunding the ?1,233,258.95 into the ICPC Recovery Account,’ the statement noted.

The ICPC reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring accountability and integrity in the public service, warning that officers who falsify records or manipulate the system for personal gain will face prosecution and sanctions under the law.

Ghana’s National Sports Authority (NSA) has confirmed it will lift the ban on professional boxing, paving the way for Matchroom’s historic first event in the country, scheduled for December 20 at the Legon Sports Stadium in Accra, just five days before Christmas.

The NSA had suspended all professional boxing earlier this year after two ring-related deaths in six months, citing the move as a ‘necessary step to protect lives and uphold the integrity of the sport.’ The authority has since strengthened safety measures and governance structures within Ghanaian boxing. The timing of the reinstatement aligns with Matchroom’s upcoming show headlined by British light-heavyweights Craig Richards and Dan Azeez, which will be broadcast live on DAZN. The event will also feature heavyweight prospect Leo Atang and Indian southpaw Nishant Dev.

NSA officials said in a statement that professional boxing can now resume following ‘significant progress in addressing the key issues that led to its suspension.’ They also encouraged local and international promoters to bring major events to Ghana ‘under these enhanced standards.’

Promoter Eddie Hearn has described the Accra card as a crucial ‘precursor’ to Anthony Joshua’s long-awaited first fight in Africa, expected to take place in early 2026.

The two-time world heavyweight champion is currently in camp preparing for his comeback bout after more than a year out of the ring.

In today’s business environment, data has moved beyond finance and marketing; it is now central to strategy, reputation, and competitiveness. For organisations serious about sustainability, the message is clear: what gets measured gets financed. In the world of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), this is no longer a slogan; it is a defining business truth.

The power of ESG data

Investors, creditors, and global partners now demand credible, granular ESG data (on emissions, energy use, workforce diversity, supply chains, and governance systems) that can be verified and compared. Across Africa, companies that demonstrate rigour in ESG measurement and disclosure are unlocking access to global capital, entering new supply chains, and building enduring trust.

As regulatory regimes strengthen and sustainability expectations rise, organisations without reliable ESG data face exclusion from financing, partnerships, and even market opportunities. In this new order, data is power: to negotiate, access funding, build credibility, and compete globally.

From compliance to competitive advantage

Many Nigerian firms still view ESG reporting as a compliance burden. Yet those who stop at compliance miss the real opportunity. When ESG data is systematically gathered, analysed, and linked to business strategy, it becomes a competitive differentiator.

Firms that can show year-on-year progress on key sustainability metrics like energy efficiency, emissions reduction, community impact, or governance quality are more likely to attract investors, access capital, and secure partnerships. Good ESG data doesn’t just support business; it strengthens and sustains it.

An African example

A clear example is Ecobank Group, with operations across 33 African countries. In December 2023, Ecobank secured its first US$200 million sustainability-linked loan from a syndicate of European development finance institutions led by Proparco.

The terms of the loan are tied to Ecobank’s ESG commitments, including measurable targets for green lending, emissions reduction, and climate risk management. The deal was made possible because the bank had credible ESG data, transparent reporting structures, and a clear climate strategy. By demonstrating accountability through data, Ecobank not only attracted new capital at favourable terms but also strengthened its reputation as a regional leader in sustainable finance.

This case offers a powerful lesson: in Africa’s emerging markets, strong ESG data is currency. It builds confidence among investors and financiers.

Key levers for effective ESG measurement

1. Focus on materiality.

Identify the ESG issues most critical to your sector; for manufacturing, it may be energy efficiency or waste; for services, diversity or data privacy. Focus on what is material, measurable, and impactful.

2. Strengthen governance.

The credibility of ESG data rests on governance. Establish clear roles, internal audit trails, and independent assurance. Data without governance lacks integrity.

3. Build data infrastructure.

Invest in systems that collect, verify, and analyse ESG data. Many firms in Nigeria still rely on spreadsheets or manual systems. Digital tools and integrated analytics are essential for accuracy and credibility.

4. Link data to strategy and finance.

ESG metrics should inform strategic planning, risk assessment, and financing decisions. When leadership KPIs and sustainability-linked loans are tied to ESG data, measurement becomes a strategic asset.

5. Disclose transparently.

Public reporting builds confidence. Regular ESG disclosures, whether in annual reports, standalone sustainability reports, or online dashboards, invite benchmarking, attract partners, and enhance brand value.

Nigeria’s emerging ESG landscape

Nigeria is moving in the right direction. The country recently became the first in Africa to adopt the International Sustainability Standards Board frameworks for sustainability reporting. This marks a significant step towards global alignment. Yet, many organisations still struggle with data quality, internal capacity, and governance systems.

Despite these challenges, early movers stand to gain the most. Companies that invest in reliable ESG data systems today will enjoy first-mover advantage, access to global funding, better investor confidence, and a stronger social licence to operate. In a world where capital increasingly flows toward verified sustainability, data strength will define who stays competitive.

The boardroom imperative

Forward-thinking boards are already reframing ESG as a strategic issue. The questions business leaders should ask include:

1) Which ESG metrics are truly material to our business?

2) Is our data independently verified and disclosed transparently?

3) How does our ESG performance influence our financing terms or market access?

4) Are our leaders accountable for ESG outcomes?

5) Have we built the capacity to turn sustainability data into business intelligence?

Boards that embed these questions into corporate governance frameworks will not only comply, they will compete and lead.

Conclusion

Measurement is the new muscle of modern business. ESG reporting is no longer about public image; it is about strategic positioning, access to finance, and long-term resilience.

For businesses seeking to compete globally, the path is clear: invest in ESG data systems, govern them with integrity, and disclose transparently.

Those who do will attract partners, earn investor confidence, and command a seat at the global table of sustainable capital.

The future belongs to those who can prove, not just claim, their impact. What gets measured gets financed. And what gets financed gets ahead.