UN Global Compact membership key to receiving replenishment from financiers – DBG CEO
The Development Bank Ghana (DBG), as part of efforts to strengthen its commitments and operations with a sustainable business and governance framework, has signed onto the United Nations Global Compact Initiative.
DBG becomes the first financial institution in Ghana to sign onto the UN Global Compact.
By becoming a signatory to the Global Compact, DBG is reinforcing its commitment to uphold and protect human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption principles through its business practices.
Speaking at the signing ceremony on Wednesday, September 28, 2022, Chief Executive Officer of DBG, Kwamina Duker, averred the bank’s membership of the UN Global Compact, gives it the gravitas to seek for further replenishments from Development Finance Institutions [DFIs] namely the World Bank, KfW, the African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
“Signing onto the UN Global Compact is a public message both locally and internationally about the kind of bank we want to be, the standards we want to adhere to and the governance that underlines everything that we do.
“It is also important because it gives us gravitas, credibility and reassures the stakeholders who have made investments in us, about the kind of bank we are trying to build.
“And as we go about our mandate and provide long term finance to SMEs, at some stage we will go back to them for replenishment and they will look at how we have behaved, they will look at our governance to see whether we have supported the development principles and if we have passed, we are replenished and our support to local businesses is also replenished,” he quipped.
DBG, prior to commencing operations, received funds from the likes of The World Bank ($200 million), European Investment Bank (€177.7 million), KfW Development Bank (€46.5 million) and the Africa Development Bank ($40 million). Additionally, the Ghanaian Government has put down $250 million worth of equity in DBG.
Loans to be given out to SMEs by DBG would have maturity dates of 3 to 15 years. The DBG is hoping to increase the proportion of loans available for small businesses from 9% to 15% between now and 2024.
The bank has mapped out plans to disburse $600 million worth of credit facilities to small businesses over a 2-year period.
The UN Global Compact
The UN Global Compact is a United Nations pact which enjoins its signatories, mostly businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation.
The Compact has a ten-principle-based framework for businesses that enables them to operate in ways which meet fundamental responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption which form the pillars of the UN Global Compact.
By incorporating the Ten Principles of the Compact into strategies, policies and procedures, and establishing a culture of integrity, companies are not only upholding their basic responsibilities to people and planet, but is also setting the stage for long-term success.
The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative with over 13,000 corporate participants and other stakeholders in over 170 countries with the objectives of mainstreaming the Ten Principles in business activities around the world and to catalyse actions in support of broader United Nations goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
