If you visit the website of National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), it doesn’t take long to recognise that it takes corporate responsibility seriously.
Keywords such as sustainability and responsibility feature strongly, and the bank declares its aim to “see a more prosperous Bahrain is not restricted to providing banking service alone but to create an environment where every member of the community has an opportunity to build a future which is safe, secure, happy and flourishing.”
In 2023, the bank’s actions matched its words – it is Euromoney’s best bank for corporate responsibility in the Middle East as a result. Under the leadership of new group chief executive Usman Ahmed, who took the job at the beginning of the year, NBB has supported an impressive range of causes and initiatives with funding and other resources, to a total of 81 organizations.
The bank has channelled 5% of profits into the local community since the 1980s and, for 2023, when it posted net profit of BD81.4 million ($216 million), it is on track to allocate around $10.8 million to charitable causes.
Its focus has been education, health care, supporting families facing financial difficulties and promoting tree-planting initiatives. The bank maximises the reach and effectiveness of these programmes by collaborating with established non-profit organizations such as Injaz Bahrain, AlMabarrah AlKhalifia Foundation and the Royal Humanitarian Foundation.
NBB ran the second year of its Evolve internship programme in 2023. Despite being relatively new, Evolve saw impressive reach, attracting almost 80 school and university students from across Bahrain. The students worked with 60 professionals from NBB and local training institutions to gain practical skills and knowledge.
The bank combined this focus area of learning and young people with its ambitions on sustainability by supporting the Bahrain International Schools Eco-Summit in May 2023, where it sponsored students showcasing environmental projects.
It also partnered with the Innov8 Hackathon to empower young people to develop solutions for sustainable development and sponsored the participation of Bahraini students at the Gitex Global event in Dubai, where they exhibited innovative projects as part of the Bahrain Pavilion.
Under the leadership of Usman Ahmed, NBB has supported an impressive range of causes and initiatives with funding and other resources
The bank has also been busy with social housing initiatives. It has collaborated with Eskan Bank to showcase its Mazaya and Mazaya 2.0 social housing financing programmes, and has officially handed over the first villas in the Suhail real estate development project, the first of many projects under the government’s land development programme.
Closer to home, the Bahraini lender concluded the first phase of its own sustainability roadmap in 2023, which involved implementing an environmental, social and governance risk assessment policy and adding ESG considerations to its conventional products and lending.
It also ran initiatives to boost diversity and inclusion in its own operations, increasing the number of women in management positions. Women now hold 27% of positions, compared with 16% three years ago.
