Alhassan Andani
President of the Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB), Alhassan Andani, has stated that the banking sector will not provide funds for organizations whose projects endanger the climate.
Speaking at an investment forum on Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as part of the 2019 Africa Climate Week held recently in Accra, Mr. Andani stressed that the sector has resolved to halt funding of projects which do not meet the pre-requisites for sustainable investment.
The sector, he said, would rather take active part in the mobilization of funds to assist agencies, whose activities protected the climate.
Mr Andani, who is also Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic Bank Ghana, mentioned that all 23 commercial banks in the country would commission technical experts to do an impact analysis of projects that affected the climate to assess the dangers they pose to the climate before investing.
According to him, a committee was currently working on a document that would make this officially binding on all the 23 banks in the country.
He called on industries whose actions affect climate change to be charged to invest in climate change interventions.
The two-day forum was used to discuss ways to amass private sector investment for projects in Ghana that were financially viable and that also delivered the climate solutions Ghana had pledged in its NDC.
The forum also sought to serve as a platform to discuss and showcase proven climate solutions and investment-ready climate action projects to attract support from all relevant stakeholders and mobilize investments for Ghana.
Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, said huge investment was required to tackle climate change globally.
He disclosed that Ghana needed about $22.6 billion in investments from domestic and international sources to finance its climate actions scheduled to start by 2020.
This is made up of about $6.3 billion to be mobilized from domestic sources and $16.3 billion from international support.
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio