For the second year in a row, Equity Bank is Africa’s best bank for corporate responsibility. Under the leadership of group CEO James Mwangi, Equity Bank continues to create shared value for clients and citizens across its banking business, as well as its foundation, which dates back to 2008.
Through the Equity Group Foundation, it has managed to create economic opportunities, providing beneficiaries with tools and technologies build financial resilience. By the end of 2022, foundation initiatives – to which the bank contributes 2% of its revenue annually – were cumulatively funded to the tune of $605 million.
Education remains a central pillar of the group’s corporate responsibility strategy and all the flagship programmes that Equity Bank runs performed well over the awards period.
Through its Wings to Fly scholarship, the group helped 1,000 students to start their education in in 2022. Equity also selected 9,000 students to receive secondary school scholarships as part of its Elimu Scholarship Programme. This is complemented by Equity’s Technical and Vocational Educational Training and the Equity Leaders Programme.
The bank also works with governments and other social development partners to improve public policy models and support programmatic implementation across the countries in which it operates.
But it is Equity Bank’s agency banking model that makes it stand out. The system aims to widen financial access and inclusion in Kenya and across the bank’s international business lines. The bank has embedded third parties in its own value chain, creating about 68,000 jobs. To date, the agency banking model has processed KSh117 billion ($834 million) in social welfare payments to 4.5 million households.
Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises businesses make up the bulk of its clientele, with 59% of Equity’s $2.75 billion loan portfolio covering SMEs. And in 2022, over 112,000 small and micro enterprises received training in entrepreneurship.
The lender has also adopted cash-based assistance as a humanitarian aid delivery, promoting the use of electronic social payments as a cost-effective solution to transfer cash to exposed demographics, while also promoting their socioeconomic and financial integration.
Equity Bank’s agency banking model aims to widen financial access and inclusion in Kenya and across the bank’s international business lines
Equity Group has also made considerable efforts to incorporate principles of climate justice in its approach to corporate responsibility, recognizing that low-income communities are more vulnerable to climate shocks. The foundation promotes the use of clean energy and energy efficiency to help households and encourages institutions and industries to transition to a more cost-effective and climate-friendly model.
This has led to over $125 million disbursed for eligible mitigation and adaptation in renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate smart agriculture. The group estimates that over 376,122 trees have been saved through cooking energy transitions in 2022 and over 21.8 million trees planted by December 2022 as part of the bank’s 35 million tree planting campaign.
In May last year, Equity Group and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) signed a $165 million credit facility with international partners to support sustainable development micro and SME lending to climate-smart businesses. In addition, IFC’s Financial Institutions Growth Fund acquired a 6.71% stake in Equity Group.
