yemisi Izuora
Access Bank Plc. has again received top honours at the 2018 Karlsruhe Sustainable Finance Awards in Germany, emerging as the winner across 2 categories. This recognition comes barely 24 hours after the Bank bagged the Euromoney Awards for Excellence as “Africa’s Best Bank for Corporate Social Responsibility” in London.
The awards ceremony held on July 12, 2018 at the City Hall of Karlsruhe, Germany’s most sustainable city. Access Bank received the Karlsruhe award for “Outstanding Business Sustainability Achievement” in recognition of the Bank’s impressive success in holistically embedding sustainability across all aspects of operations. This marks the third consecutive win for Access Bank, and further reinforces the institution’s status as an industry pioneer in sustainable development.
Access Bank Group Managing Director/CEO, Herbert Wigwe was also honoured for his remarkable leadership and commitment to sustainable development with the “Sustainable Leader of the Year for Africa” award. The award was presented in recognition of Wigwe’s exceptional leadership in driving business transformation through incorporating social, environmental and economic values in the Bank’s operations.
“We are honoured to receive this level of recognition,” Wigwe said. “At Access Bank, sustainability is a part of our DNA and we promise to continue to be the face of social, economic and environmental developments that facilitates an inclusive and vibrant economy, business transformations and increase our shareholders value for tomorrow”
In attendance at the awards ceremony were CEOs of leading global financial institutions, senior executives, top German government officials, policy makers,regulators and key sustainability stakeholders.
Access Bank began its sustainability journey in 2008 and has led various initiatives in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. In 2012, the Bank championed the implementation of the Nigerian Sustainable Banking Principles, which have now been adopted nationwide. The Bank was also the first indigenous Nigerian Bank to join 25 leading global banks to develop the Global Sustainability Banking Principles that set out to align the sector with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.
The Bank is committed to setting standards across the Nigerian financial sectors by pioneering sustainable initiatives such as, the launch of waste recycling in the financial sector, launch of the Nigeria Green Bonds Market Development Programme in partnership with FMDQ and Climate Bonds Initiative, Malaria to Zero Initiative to galvanize the private sector efforts towards addressing malaria cases in Nigeriaamongst others.