Goretti Masadde, the chief executive officer of the Uganda Institute of Banking and Financial Services (UIBFS) has called upon commercial banks to finance projects that promote biodiversity conservation.
“Financial services can do a lot to either mitigate, adapt, or promote biodiversity conservation. We are telling them to increasingly make more green finance available and accessible to fund green projects such as wind and solar farms, and to invest in businesses themselves to help them become greener,” she said
“Banks should be funding projects that reduce carbon emissions but not those that are escalating it,” she added.
Masade made these remarks during the 3rd edition of the annual exhibition of the UIBFS on Friday.
Masade said that Banks should finance projects that aim at reducing carbon emissions.
She said that some commercial banks have continued to fund companies that produce and trade commodities at high risk of driving deforestation, a development that’s seen to be against the much sought-after green finance agenda.
She also called for greater oversight of commercial banks over concerns that a cluster of the country’s biggest lenders are pumping billions into companies with ties to deforestation risks and other unhealthy investments.
This year’s 3rd edition of the exhibition was held under the theme: “Start Small Grow Big, Be GreenSmart”.
“Banks, therefore, play an essential role in helping people and businesses to access the money to support environmentally-friendly activity,” she said
Masadde noted that the institute would launch a business development services support to ensure that borrowers are trained on green priority areas.
Speaking at the function, Mona Muguma Ssebuliba, the CEO aBi Finance called on financial institutions to appreciate the magnitude and risks associated with climate change.
“Managing climate change requires that those tasked with Governance of our institutions, that is board and management MUST appreciate the climate change threats to business and start to act immediately. Once governance is aligned, commit resources to develop and institutionalize clear Environmental and Socially inclusive policies, frameworks, and products, build capacity (for staff, systems, and infrastructure) and pursue partnerships to enable climate adaptation, mitigation, and biodiversity conservation investments.”
Mugume said the institution has launched a dedicated green investment fund to help mitigate climate change and support biodiversity conservation.
“The idea is to support financial institutions in providing appropriate loan products and services to allow agri- businesses and smallholder farmers access financing that will address climate change particularly to help the businesses adapt to climate change, mitigate against some of the vagaries coming to do with climate change,” she said adding that green financing is critical in supporting the transition to a low carbon economy.
The Green Finance Exhibition featured enterprises created out of a need to respond to a sustainable theme – Sustainable finance, forests, renewable energy, recycled items, green building, and gender inclusiveness showcasing their latest products and services, technologies, and best practices developed through environmental sustainability.
