The Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) launched a report on the progress towards the implementation of sustainable finance in decision-making at Kenyan banks.
The KBA houses a Sustainable Finance Working Group that complies mid-level managers at Kenya banks that champions and promotes sustainable finance principles and practices among Kenyan banks. The report shows that 85% of banks have aligned their credit policies to responsible and sustainable lending practices and 57% of banks have integrated sustainability reports into their financial reporting. The results are based on voluntary disclosures by banks.
KBA also launched a revamped Sustainable Finance Initiative e-learning website that is now Persons With Disability (PWD)-friendly.
Since it was originally launched in 2015, over 99% (33,000 employees) of banking industry staff have received training on how to make more inclusive financial decisions. The bankers are trained on different modules, including on green bonds and with case-studies from other markets. The top-performing banks in SFI e-learning have been NCBA, Bank of Africa, Diamond Trust, I&M, and Sidian banks. Also, bankers can now sign in with user names, as access is no longer based on their email addresses, which created hitches when people learning switched banks.
The new platform has got case foreign and local studies on blue and green finance. Some of the ones cited in the report include the Acorn Green Bond, arranged by Stanbic and guaranteed by GuarantCo, which raised Kshs 4.3 billion for environmentally- friendly student accommodation in Nairobi. Others are CBA’s $2 million lending to M-KOPA, a seller of solar-powered devices to low income, mostly unbanked households, on a pay-to-own instalment basis and Standard Chartered’s Kshs 10 million 3-year loan to assist Uhuru Flower Farms to acquire a solar system to reduce their energy costs and improve the reliability of the power supply.
Also this week, Family Bank joined the United Nations Global Compact network, and became the 4th bank in Kenya to commit to building a sustainable business that adheres to the ten principles of the network.
The KBA sustainability study was done with support from WWF-Kenya which is also supporting the green bonds program in Kenya.