Banks in Ghana have been urged to scale up investments in biodiversity conservation and nature protection, using the Bank of Ghana’s Sustainable Banking Principles as a guiding framework for lending and investment decisions.
The banking sector manages almost GHS 647 billion in assets. Participants at a stakeholder engagement on Ghana’s Biodiversity Finance Plan said consistent application of the Sustainable Banking Principles could unlock funding to protect the country’s natural resources.
The workshop, organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Ghana, brought together government officials, sector regulators, banking representatives and development partners to examine how financial flows could be redirected from activities that drive nature loss towards initiatives that promote environmental restoration. Dr Saeed Abdul Razak, Environment and Climate Lead at UNDP Ghana, urged the banking sector to increase investments in biodiversity conservation.
Dr Razak said banks needed to deliberately scale up investments that protected and restored biodiversity, noting that their survival was closely linked to nature, as most of the businesses they financed depended on land, forests, water and other natural resources. The UNDP is working with the Government to develop a Biodiversity Finance Plan to address the disconnect between Ghana’s economic development pathway and nature conservation.
Mr Raymond Ohene Ofori, Deputy Director, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, said the Government was pursuing a unified governance framework to ensure that sector players worked towards a common goal of safeguarding nature and the environment. Mr Kingsley Owusu Anom, Head of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), said the banking sector’s assets under management accounted for about 45 per cent of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Mr Anom encouraged banks to move beyond general environmental screening by developing specific biodiversity-focused financial products and integrating environmental and social risks into their lending decisions. He urged banks to use their Corporate Social Responsibility budgets more strategically by directing part of the funds towards biodiversity conservation, capacity building, training and public awareness to help clients and communities appreciate the importance of protecting nature.