The Commercial International Bank of Egypt (CIB), the largest private sector bank in Egypt, participated in the 2023 African Financial Alliance on Climate Summit (AFAC), which took place in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
A number of the bank’s leaders attended two discussion sessions during the summit activities to present the various climate challenges that have the most impact on the entire region in preparation for the upcoming United Nations climate conference COP28.
CIB also attended the advisory board meeting of the Glasgow Financial Alliance, which was held in Africa this year, and of which Mr. Hussein Abaza, CEO and Managing Director of the Commercial International Bank CIB, has the honor of being a member. The meeting was held to discuss ways forward for the alliance and priority areas for enhancing climate action in the region.
The bank is taking solid, systematic steps to enhance sustainable and climate finance, including financing climate mitigation and adaptation projects on the African continent.
It is also keen to strengthen its banking operations within the African market through its wholly affiliated bank in the Republic of Kenya, CIB Kenya Limited.
Dr. Dalia Abdelkader, Head of the Sustainable Finance Sector at the bank, participated in a discussion session organized by the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero Emissions (GFANZ) entitled “Providing Support and Building Capacity for Financial Institutions to Drive Climate Action in Africa”.
Abdelkader pointed out the regulatory gap in the system that works on reducing the effects of climate change worldwide.
She stressed that education is among those systems with a global gap, which is why the world has an urgent need to establish a new educational system that includes a specialized, independent curriculum for sustainable finance so that financial institutions can implement the guidelines and instructions of regulatory authorities or disclosure authorities.
She further explained that among these guidelines and instructions are conducting climate scenario analysis and stress testing to mitigate climate risks and reduce carbon emissions resulting from their financing and investment portfolios, in addition to reporting emissions data generated by their clients.
Dr. Abdelkader also contributed to another discussion session entitled “Advocating for Climate Action in the African Financial Sector,” organized by the African Financial Alliance on Climate Change (AFAC), and said: CIB believes in the ability of African financial institutions to transform climate risks into opportunities. It was demonstrated by the bank’s experience in creating business models to enhance the financial transition to a low-carbon economy.
She added: Sustainable finance education is the cornerstone for unleashing the power and role of new African financial institutions; therefore, CIB is moving towards expanding the scope of the Sustainable Finance Academy announced during the COP27 climate summit.
