Nedbank combined market leadership with innovation, expanded sector reach and strengthened alignment to international standards to emerge as the deserved winner of the award for Africa’s best bank for sustainable finance. Sustainable development finance exposure reached R183 billion ($7.7 billion) in 2024, or 19% of total gross loans and advances – up from 13% in 2021 – keeping the South African institution on track to meet its 20% exposure target by end-2025.
A defining moment came in November 2024 with the issuance of a R2 billion sustainability tier 2 note on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It was the bank’s debut issuance in this format and the first in South Africa to combine three distinct sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) – affordable housing for women, water infrastructure and climate-smart agriculture – into a single instrument.
“This was a landmark bond,” says Arvana Singh, head of sustainable finance solutions at Nedbank. “We brought together three fairly unique and impactful KPIs and, in doing so, created a product that spoke to our sustainability objectives and met the institutional market’s needs.” The deal achieved record-low pricing for its class at the time and attracted strong investor demand.
Beyond local innovation, Nedbank extended its sustainable finance franchise into new regions and sectors. It concluded its first sustainable finance transaction in Côte d’Ivoire with a €18.5 million ($21.7 million) sustainability-linked loan for Cosmos Yopougon Shopping Centre, the first operational building in Francophone West and Central Africa to achieve IFC Edge certification. In its home market, the bank also structured a 15-year R4.5 billion term loan for the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority’s Mokolo-Crocodile River water augmentation project, enabling long-term access to water for key economic and environmental stakeholders in the Waterberg district municipality, Limpopo province.
It has committed to progressively reducing its fossil fuel exposure as part of its net-zero by 2050 ambition, with plans to exit completely by 2045
On the climate strategy front, Nedbank was the first South African bank to publish carbon reduction targets for its financing activities, aligned with the IEA’s Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario. It has committed to progressively reducing its fossil fuel exposure as part of its net-zero by 2050 ambition, with plans to exit completely by 2045. Complementing this are enhanced disclosure practices via IFRS S1/S2 and adoption of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials methodology to measure financed emissions.
These advances were underpinned by Nedbank’s sustainable finance solutions team – an eight-person unit with senior, mid and junior management specialists embedded in the investment banking franchise. In parallel, a partnership with DP World Trade Finance has helped to extend working capital and trade finance solutions across sub-Saharan African value chains.
With technical innovation, sectoral diversification and long-range alignment to global sustainability standards, Nedbank is helping to set the benchmark for sustainable finance leadership in African banking.
