About
Obasanjo Okekunle is a Chartered Certified Accountant and doctoral researcher in Accounting at the University of Westminster. His PhD work focuses primarily on sustainability accounting, transparency, and accountability in corporate entity sustainability reporting, with a particular focus on emerging markets in Africa. Obasanjo's PhD project is supervised by Dr. Neeta Shah and Dr. Charles Agyeman.
He holds an MSc in Finance and Accounting with distinction from the University of Westminster and a First-Class Honours degree in Accounting from Osun State University, Nigeria. During his Doctoral Research, Obasanjo has developed expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including the application of data analytics and Python programming to large-scale corporate reporting datasets. I have an excellent knowledge of various data analysis tools, including NVivo, SPSS, Excel and Python.
Aside from his role as a researcher, Obasanjo is an experienced Tax professional in practice firms. He is currently a tax consultant and manager at Balancewise Services, London.
He is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Focus
I am particularly keen on promoting SDG 1 - No Poverty, SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, and SDG 4 - Quality Education. Financial Literacy and Inclusion in Africa is a project I have prioritised for collaboration.
Key Academic Outputs
Working Paper 1 : Sustainability Accounting Literature: A Review of the Concept and Definitions of Sustainability Accounting
Obasanjo David Okekunle, Neeta Shah and Charles Agyeman
This is a chapter in my PhD thesis that I am currently working on for publication. This paper employs a systematic literature review, following Mathews' (1997) methodology, to examine the development of sustainability accounting over 53 years, from 1971 to 2023.
Working Paper 2: ESG disclosure Quality and Performance - Does Crisis Time Differ? Evidence from Africa and the UK
Obasanjo David Okekunle, Akindapo Abass Alimi and Saheed A. Shittu
This study examines how the quality of ESG disclosure, evaluated by the Bloomberg ESG Disclosure Score, affects the financial performance of Africa’s top 250 listed companies. It also explores how governance quality moderates this relationship before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in comparison to the economy most affected by the pandemic.
Working Paper 3: Board Governance and the Evolution of Biodiversity Disclosure in Africa: A Longitudinal Analysis of Drivers, Patterns, and the COVID-19 Shock
Obasanjo David Okekunle and Akindapo Abass Alimi
This study employs quantitative analysis to examine the impact of board characteristics on biodiversity disclosures among the top 250 African companies, from 2006 to 2024, before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
News
2026-04
Selected for the Vitae Legacy Research Culture Prize by the Black History Year Researchers Network and Vitae
2026-03
New fellowship status as Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
2026 -04
Accepted for the 2nd Accounting Forum Conference to be held at The Bucharest University of Economic Studies