FirstBank’s learning arm, FirstAcademy, struck gold in Paris, winning the 2025 Global Council of Corporate Universities (GlobalCCU) Gold Award for Best Corporate University in Social & Climate Change.
The prize crowns a 13-year journey that has turned the bank’s in-house academy from a staff-training centre into a continental beacon for sustainability education.
The biennial GlobalCCU Awards are the world’s toughest benchmark for corporate universities.
Nominees undergo a nine-dimensional audit that measures governance, relevance, pedagogical innovation, business impact and positive influence on society and the planet.
Since the ceremony debuted in 2013 a handful of African institutions have reached the podium, and none before now had topped the climate-change category.
That changed on Thursday night inside Paris’s Pavillon Kléber when FirstAcademy’s name was announced to a standing ovation.
“FirstAcademy is an outstanding Corporate University leading the world in social and climate-change learning initiatives.
“Its programmes align seamlessly with FirstBank’s vision of responsible banking and receive strong strategic backing from senior leadership.
“Congratulations for setting a visionary standard in meaningful impact through learning and inclusive capacity building,” said awards founder and chair Annick Renaud-Coulon.
FirstBank’s Acting Group Head for Marketing and Corporate Communications, Olayinka Ijabiyi, accepted the trophy on behalf of the Nigerian lender.
He told the audience that the accolade validated a philosophy placing people and planet on equal footing with profit.
He said, “This honour confirms our conviction that business can be a force for good.
“The skills our employees acquire at FirstAcademy ripple outward to customers, communities and ecosystems, creating sustainable and equitable futures.”
Founded in 2012, FirstAcademy was originally tasked with sharpening staff competencies in credit, compliance and customer service.
The watershed came in 2020 when FirstBank publicly aligned its strategy with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan.
Management instructed the academy to mainstream environmental, social and governance (ESG) thinking across every course. Within two years more than seventy per cent of its curriculum had been redesigned to integrate climate finance, circular-economy entrepreneurship, gender equality and ethical technology.
Learners are expected to translate theory into practice. One capstone project saw a cohort of retail bankers design solar-powered kiosks for rural women traders, cutting their fuel costs by forty per cent.
Another team built an AI-driven energy dashboard that helped FirstBank’s Lagos head office cut electricity consumption by 22 per cent in 2024, saving ₦340 million and 2,600 tonnes of carbon emissions.
FirstAcademy’s influence stems from its seat at the top table. A Learning & Sustainability Council, chaired by the Group Managing Director, vets the academy’s yearly roadmap and ties funding to measurable ESG targets.
One per cent of the bank’s profit-before-tax is ring-fenced for social-impact learning projects.
This mechanism financed Nigeria’s first Executive Diploma in Climate-Smart Banking, developed with Lagos Business School, and a joint research lab investigating fintech solutions for conflict-area financial inclusion.
Quarterly dashboards track metrics such as percentage of staff trained on climate-risk frameworks, number of inclusive-finance products launched, volunteer hours logged and greenhouse-gas reductions achieved through learner projects.
These data feed directly into the bank’s integrated annual report, ensuring transparency and accountability.
The academy’s teachings have spurred a wave of green innovation inside the 131-year-old institution.
In 2024 the retail directorate unveiled a ₦50 billion Green SME Fund offering single-digit loans for solar home systems, clean-cooking ventures and plastic-recycling start-ups.
Shortly afterwards the corporate bank structured Nigeria’s first social-impact bond aimed at financing energy-efficient affordable housing.
Both products were prototyped by employees during FirstAcademy design sprints and refined with faculty oversight.
Externally, faculty members have advised the Central Bank of Nigeria on climate-related financial disclosure guidelines and serve on the committee drafting the country’s green taxonomy.
Last September the academy co-hosted West Africa’s inaugural Youth Climate Hackathon, mentoring 150 undergraduates who produced prototypes from flood-prediction dashboards to biodegradable packaging.
Founded in Paris in 2013, the GlobalCCU Awards are staged every two years. Entrants endure a six-month audit of governance and social value by a global jury.
Of the 56 corporate universities from 31 countries that applied in 2025, only nine made the final cut.
FirstAcademy clinched gold in the social and climate category, ahead of contenders from Canada, India and Germany.
FirstBank’s learning triumph joins a growing roll. In the past 18 months, the lender has secured titles such as Euromoney’s Best Bank for Corporates 2024, Global Finance’s Best Private Bank for Sustainable Investing in Africa 2025 and The Digital Banker’s SME Financier of the Year 2025, reinforcing its reputation for disciplined growth.
Analysts say FirstAcademy’s triumph could catalyse a regional race to scale up sustainability education.
“African companies recognise the climate imperative but often lack structured learning platforms,” observed Professor Souleymane Diop of the African Institute for Sustainable Finance.
“FirstAcademy demonstrates that an internal university can generate both business value and broad societal dividends,” Professor Diop added.
GlobalCCU’s jury cited three factors behind the gold-medal verdict: strategic alignment, measurable outcomes and cultural penetration.
Judges awarded near-perfect scores for governance and community benefit, praising how FirstAcademy’s programmes reach beyond employees to suppliers, customers and youth.
Founded in 1894, FirstBank is West Africa’s oldest financial institution and a digital-banking powerhouse with operations across eight African nations, the United Kingdom, France and a representative office in Beijing.
It maintains 820 branches and a 280,000-strong agent network that covers 772 of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas.
More than 25 million customers transact on its digital channels, including the ubiquitous \*894# USSD service.
The lender’s emphasis on resilience and inclusivity has earned it A-level domestic credit ratings and a cabinet of awards, among them Euromoney’s 2024 prize for Nigeria’s Best Bank for ESG and The Asian Banker’s 2025 title of Best SME Bank in Africa.
Diversity metrics show women occupy thirty-seven per cent of management positions, supported by a FirstBank Women Network committed to closing the gender gap.
Riding the momentum of the Paris win, FirstAcademy plans a massive open online course, “Climate Literacy for All,” developed with the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre.
Set to launch in September 2025 in English, Hausa, Yoruba and French, the programme aims to train one million Africans within three years, prioritising youth, micro-entrepreneurs and civil servants. A pilot micro-credential in Just Transition Finance will follow, guiding oil-dependent communities through the energy shift without economic dislocation.
“We see ourselves as a bridge between knowledge and action. Awards are encouraging, but impact happens when a farmer secures solar-pump funding or a software engineer writes code to track carbon footprints,” explained Dr Chidinma Okoye, Head of Learning Innovation.
Chief Executive Officer Adesola Adeduntan called the Gold Award “a milestone on a longer journey.”
Board Chair Ibukun Awosika added: “From financing Nigeria’s first aircraft in the 1950s to pioneering digital payments, FirstBank has always broken new ground.
“Now we are trail-blazing in climate and social impact learning. It underlines our promise to put ‘You First’—people and planet before profit.”
FirstAcademy’s Gold Award is more than a trophy; it is a signal that African corporates can marry commercial ambition with climate leadership through disciplined learning architecture.
As other businesses scramble to future-proof their workforces and align with national carbon goals, the Lagos-based academy offers a replicable blueprint: embed ESG thinking into core strategy, incentivise practical projects and publish transparent results. Gold today may well translate into a greener continent tomorrow.
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