Equity Bank Kenya has been feted after reporting the highest number of transactions for climate-related financing among the 258 financial institutions that were considered globally.

Equity was recognised as the top global performer by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for the 2023 Climate Assessment for Financial Institutions (CAFI) Awards for Climate Reporting.

CAFI is a tool developed by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to enable its clients and partners in 210 countries to report on their financing activities for climate-related projects.

IFC says Equity Bank Kenya empowered 47,593 households and businesses to adopt adaptive and mitigating solutions to tackle the adverse effects of climate change.

The bank offered support including climate loan facilities from Sh6,000 to buy energy-efficient cooking stoves in the retail sector up to Sh8.54 billion to fund the distribution of renewable energy from renewable sources, including hydro, geothermal, and wind.

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According to the corporation the enumerated efforts by the financial company have resulted in an overall reduction of 39,917.4 tonnes of CO2eq annually.

Equity Bank Kenya has revealed that, by October 2023, it had expended Sh24.7 billion as follows:

• Climate adaptation and water efficiency – 66%

• Energy efficiency and transport – 28%

• Renewable energy – 6%

Most of the financing supported climate-smart agriculture, built resilience for farmers and farming ecosystems, and led social and environmental transformation as part of Equity Group’s ambitious Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan.

“Equity is committed to playing a significant role in climate change mitigation and adaptation by providing appropriate financing and capacity development that helps the region decarbonize and build resilience,” stated Equity Group Managing Director & CEO Dr James Mwangi.

He added: “By being recognized as the Bank with the most transactions, Equity is creating a broader impact and reach for local communities and businesses.

He said the bank will continue backing Kenya's goal of tackling climate change by cutting its carbon emissions by 32 per cent by 2030 and building resilience, as envisioned in the National Determined Contribution.

In 2019, Equity Bank Kenya partnered with IFC for a $100 million facility for lending to climate-related projects and matched the facility as part of its pledge to climate finance.

By June 2023, IFC had committed $15.2 billion to climate-related projects through more than 210 emerging market financial institution partners, leveraging an extra $5.8 billion.

“IFC's work with banks and other financial institutions helps scale up climate finance activities and measure investments earmarked for climate, vital for our clients to realize their climate impact,” said IFC Financial Institution Group Global Director Tomasz Telma.

In September 2023 as Kenya hosted the first Africa Climate Summit, Dr Mwangi led a private sector delegation to discuss how to drive Africa's green growth agenda and climate financing.

Equity Group has been leading Africa’s private sector climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts and adopted a twin-engine business model for sustainable development.

The Group invested in financing its key pillars of its social impact initiatives: energy and environment projects; food and agriculture; health; education and leadership; enterprise development and financial inclusion; and social protection.

Similarly, Equity Group Foundation facilitated planting of 23.3 million trees to boost Kenya's forest cover and distributed 408,756 clean energy products to households and institutions.

Equity Group is expected to continue playing a significant role as the implementing partner of the newly unveiled Africa Rural Climate Adaptation Finance Mechanism (ARCAFIM).

Introduced by UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and partners, the mechanism seeks to provide tailored finance farmers and rural microenterprises in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda in adapting to climate change.

Equity Bank Kenya and the Group’s subsidiaries in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda have pledged a total of US$90 million to the initiative added to a similar amount from IFAD.

The US$180 million will be devoted to climate change adaptation loans integrating blended finance while encouraging private sector participation through a risk-sharing mechanism.

The momentous partnership aims to bolster climate change adaptation financing while reducing the poverty levels and hunger in Kenya and the larger Eastern Africa region.