Annual Bankers Conference to focus on green financing, transparency

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Climate change, community welfare and transparency in business are to dominate the 7th  Annual Bankers Conference set for June 19.

This comes just after the launch of the Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) National Framework that aims to ensure all financial institutions in the country conduct business in ways that protect and promote the environment, communities and transparency and accountability.

The conference organized by the Uganda Bankers Association (UBA) under the theme: Navigating the Future of Banking: ESG, Sustainability and Digital Transformation, aims to shine a light on sustainability through climate and environmental advocacy initiatives.

This should also encourage the sector to be more wary of its impact on the planet, and the need for sustainable practices along with the digital transformation of the industry at large.

UBA Chairman, Julius Kakeeto says they are focusing on ESG practices because it is very vital in business sustainability, as ESG and financial performance are very interconnected.

“A lot of well-performing organisations have embraced ESG and are far ahead in terms of this journey. ESG enhances accountability to the society around you; the community, different stakeholders, investors, customer, because you embed environmental, social governance in your operations,” says Kakeeto.

The ESG framework launched earlier this week, represents a set of criteria evaluating a company’s impact on the environment, its relationships with employees and communities, and its internal management practices.

Kakeeto says that it is becoming common knowledge that issues like the impact of the company’s activities on the environment, equitable treatment of employees, the ethical culture of the business, and its stance on matters such as bribery and tax evasion have an effect on the longevity of the company’s business.

“It is becoming a crucial global concern heightening the awareness of issues like climate change, social inequality, and corporate misconduct and a lot of other issues that are actually affecting the performance of organisations.”

The conference is also expected to highlight how far financial institutions have gone in putting in place the requirements for compliance as well as products available.

While the banking sector is getting ready for this transformative journey, it is also crucial for the public and customers in particular to be aware of how to respond.

For this, Agricultural Business Initiative (aBi) Finance partnered with the bankers association to find a way of including the public, by training financial institutions on how to deal with the public especially as they come to borrow.

The conference is also supported by Mastercard, a digital financial services company.

Shehryar Ali, Mastercard Country Manager, East Africa commends UBA’s efforts as crucial for highlighting the interconnectedness between between financial performance and ESG practices, guiding the industry in integrating these principles into their operations.

He says this is also creating new opportunities for technology innovation is the sector.

“As the financial landscape evolves very quickly driven by ESG practices and new technologies that transform traditional banking model, our Fintech sector is booming, creating unique opportunities to use ESG strategies that support sustainable and fair economic growth,” he says.

UBA Chief Executive, Wilnrod Owor, says the industry has to ensure a stable and comfortable community for the industry to thrive.

He says with or without the framework and adopting it, the social and environmental threats around the financial sector are real.

“Just climate change today could overturn the portfolio of a bank in an area, if there was a drought or a displacement of a population of an area suddenly overnight, a bank would lose business just by that displacement,” he says.

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