ACCA is driving sustainability: Global President Joseph Owolabi 

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the world's largest accounting body, has not only been an enabler of transparency through best accounting practices, but also a champion in adopting and promoting sustainability, said its global President Joseph Owolabi. 

"ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting is not a new thing for us; in fact, when the organisation began far back in 1904, we were the first professional accounting body to start incorporating environmental accounting in a curriculum," he said in an interview with The Business Standard during his recent Dhaka visit. 

"In present days, in the last twenty years, we have played a leading role in ESGs," he said. 

Even before the framework for ESG was set, ACCA started ensuring them and that is significant because it shows how the world's largest network of accounting professionals wants to play in the community. 

"We are also the first professional body, not just an accounting body, to introduce integrated reports which capture financial, governance, environmental, community relations, and put it together to make sense to show how value is created in an organisation. 

"Our purpose is to be a force for public good. It is not just about developing and training an accountant," he said.

In recent days, it has been about climate change — flooding or heat waves or drought are hurting people and countries, be it Bangladesh or Owolabi's home country Nigeria or even countries like the UK, France nowadays. Also, earthquakes are more common now in this region. 

ACCA also devoted resources to the sustainability cause. Its Global CEO Helen Brand was the vice chair of International Integrated Reporting Council (IRRC) for a number of years, and currently the global body is supporting the IFRS Foundation with new standards of sustainability that is going to be effective next year. 

Its contribution to international sustainability standard for the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has been admired.   

"We believe that this is the right thing to do and we also know that our members value this. In fact, one of the attractions for the next generation of accountants is they want to be in a profession that is taking action on climate issues.

"We believe accountancy as a whole should lead to that, and that is why we commit our resources to it.

"ACCA is also one of the first professional finance associations that is embedding sustainability in curriculum, so the future professional accountants that we are going to develop as our members understand sustainability, incorporating climate finance into that," he said.

"Why we are doing this is because it is closely aligned with our purpose to be a force for public good," he added.

ACCA, as a force for public good and to drive the change, engages regulators, institutions, stock exchanges as partners across the countries it works. 

It has developed a sustainability kit for SMEs, as it knows that "people might have a knowledge gap even if they want to do the right thing and they don't have the right tool."

"We also developed mapping constant spots for supply chain; we developed many other tools for small practitioners like mom and dad enterprises," keeping in mind that big firms have resources to practise sustainability and small ones don't have. 

Compliance has a cost initially that brings more benefits ultimately and countries like Bangladesh and Nigeria need more and more sustainability practitioners, he feels. 

ESG is important for an economy like Bangladesh where there has been so much good for the last 10 or so years, while it has even greater ambitions for people, for the economy to be a regional player and be a global voice, he said.

Bangladesh is unique; about 40% of its population is young. From a policy perspective we need to think about what will be the opportunities for them. 

Many of them are choosing careers in finance, and that's why ACCA is really important. 

In the globalised world, Bangladeshis are all over the world – in the UK, the Middle East, US, and Australia. ACCA is a trusted partner that can help them in their career, wherever they might be. 

"I met our Bangladeshi members overseas, even here in Dhaka. We have got members who are helping with nation building, playing their part here. 

"All over the world, our members continue to drive changes in financial reporting, transparency and in building trust," he said.

ACCA, present in 178 countries, is going to celebrate a quarter million members soon this year, and the UK-based institute keeps educating and training its future and present members to drive the changes and excel in the profession. 

All the new things that change the way of working are embedded in the curriculum. For instance, blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotic automation, data governance, data security. 

"We partner with regulators and stakeholders for the digital transformation for good governance and transparency," he said. 

Green finance has the big strength to drive suitability, believes Joseph Owolabi who himself is the CEO at Rubicola Consulting – a green finance advisory firm. 

Rubicola is the first firm to be approved by the Climate Bond Initiative, an international investor-focused group with ambition to mobilise US$100 trillion in global capital towards a net-zero planet, as verifier for green bond issuances in Africa.

The youngest global president of ACCA previously worked at Deloitte Asia Pacific, PwC Australia, EY West Africa's Climate change and Sustainability Services.