By Juliet Ukanwosu
As part of activities to commemorate the 2025 Sustainability Week, the Sterling Financial Holding Company in collaboration with the Climate Africa Media Initiative and Centre (CAMIC) and NatureNews, organized a two-day media sustainability capacity building workshop for media practitioners in Abuja.
The hybrid event which held on the 16th and 17th of December, had over 40 participants drawn from various media organisations in Abuja, the Nation’s Capital and other northern states. The participants include journalists, editors and publishers from print, broadcast and online media organisations.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop on behalf of the Sustainability Working Group of Sterling Financial Holdings Company, the Chairperson, Sustainability Working Group, Mrs. Bunmi Ajiboye, said it is expected that the event will go beyond the training to becomes a cornerstone of how Nigeria tells her story of progress, resilience, and innovation.
Explaining the role of context and power of a story, Ajiboye said it forms the essence of our importance, as a story is as true as the person telling it.
Chairperson, Sustainability Working Group, Mrs. Bunmi Ajiboye
Reminding media professionals of the authority they have to wield the power of storytelling, she said, “The story is only as true as the person who told it. In order words, it is how the story is told that it will be believed, retold, resonate, and then begin to shape culture, behaviour, practices, society etc.”
While sharing the Sterling sustainability story of boldness and intentionality, from financing renewable energy solutions, to backing circular-economy startups, to supporting climate-smart agriculture and empowering thousands of young people across the country, Ajiboye pointed out that the group has come to understand that: “The work is important, but the story is what shapes the nation. What good is a breakthrough if no one hears it? What good is innovation if it isn’t translated into understanding? What good is national progress if it isn’t communicated in a way that inspires others”?
Emphasising the essential role of the media in telling sustainability stories, she said, “You, our storytellers, editors, producers, journalists, broadcasters, and digital creators, you carry the responsibility of shaping how Nigerians interpret sustainability, how policymakers understand urgency, how citizens see opportunity, and how our continent perceives its future.”
Ajiboye further stated that the training was organized to empower media professionals for the new era where sustainability is not only an environmental conversation, but a development, economic, innovation and a people conversation.
Cross-section of participants during the Workshop
She urged the media to join Sterling Financial Holdings as partners in shaping a future where sustainability is not just a buzzword, but a lived reality for Nigerians, adding that stories and platforms can ignite action, correct misinformation, inspire change and amplify innovators who are solving problems quietly in their communities.
Topics which include Sustainability in the Media Context, AI for Content Optimization and Distribution, Financial Sustainability in Media Management, Media Ethics, & AI Risks, and Sustainability in Editorial Strategy & Storytelling where delivered by carefully selected resource persons during the two-day workshop.
The resource persons include a former Managing Director of Media Trust Ltd., Akogun Isiaq Ajibola; the editor of ICIR, Victoria Bamas; the publisher of NatureNews, Mr. Aliu Akoshile, and a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Abuja, Dr. Jamila Dahiru.
Extractive360 reports that the Sterling Sustainability Working Group champions the sustainability mandate for the Sterling Financial Holdings Company that comprises of Sterling Bank and Alternative Bank.