Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Egypt (ADCB) has joined the Inclusive Green Growth in Egypt (IGGE) program, a collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) that aims to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in shifting towards a green economy. The program focuses on economic sectors such as renewable energy, resource efficiency, sustainable agriculture and food production, and waste management.
The collaboration was announced at the bank’s headquarters by Hisham Abbas, Head of Financial Institutions and Corporate Finance and Executive Member of the Board of Directors, representing ADCB, and Patrick Jean Gilabert, Representative of the Regional Office Hub in Egypt of UNIDO. A number of senior managers from both sides also attended the event.
The collaboration is part of ADCB’s strategy to achieve sustainability, as UNIDO will provide technical support and assistance to the bank’s clients and staff to issue sustainable financial and non-financial products and services that enhance climate financing and align with the strategy and objectives of ADCB Egypt.
Ihab ElSewerky, CEO and Managing Director of ADCB Egypt, commented: “Since we launched the sustainability plan in line with Abu Dhabi Commercial Group’s strategy, we have taken unprecedented steps to support our customers in their journey towards green transformation. We are happy with this cooperation with UNIDO, as we are keen to activate international partnerships to expand our sustainable financing portfolio and enable us to support our SME clients. We believe that technical support to our clients is a key incentive to improve their efficiency, competitiveness, and market expansion, which will benefit the Egyptian economy and the state’s serious directions to develop sustainability and enhance climate and sustainable finance in general.”
Hisham Abbas, Head of Financial Institutions and Corporate Finance and Executive Member of the Board of Directors of ADCB Egypt, confirmed: “This partnership enhances our capabilities to achieve a sustainable growth strategy, support responsible investment in projects with a positive impact, and encourage our clients to adopt environmental and social governance practices consistent with Egypt’s Vision 2030. This partnership also confirms our progress in achieving our targets for sustainable financing until 2030, which is 15% of the total loan portfolio, based on launching a range of sustainable banking products and services to support environmental and community projects and activities.”
From his side Patrick Jean Gilabert, Representative of the Regional Office Hub in Egypt of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), expressed his pleasure in the collaboration with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Egypt, pointing out the importance of working hand in hand with the banking sector to provide dedicated homegrown green and sustainable finance for SMEs. He stressed that climate action is one of UNIDO’s top priorities, at the global, regional and country levels, and indeed in Egypt, the vast majority of UNIDO’s technical cooperation portfolio is in the environment and energy field. Annachiara Scandone, UNIDO Industrial Development Expert and IGGE Project Manager, added “through the Swiss-funded Inclusive Green Growth in Egypt project, UNIDO together with its partners from Government and private sector foster the creation and growth of 150 green MSMEs. enhancing the offerings of financial institutions like ADCB to green SMEs is key to build a prosperous private sector, enable sustained economic growth, and at the same time safeguard the environment.”
ADCB announced the launch of the first sustainable corporate account in Egypt designed specifically for companies to manage their money while at the same time achieving their strategy of transitioning towards a sustainable economy. The launch of this account comes in line with Egypt’s Sustainability Plan 2030 and the strategy of Abu Dhabi Commercial Group, which recently announced its joining of the Net Zero Banking Alliance to reduce net carbon emissions to zero, an alliance that includes more than 130 leading international banks that work to align their lending and investment portfolios with the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 or earlier, and meeting the requirements to limit global warming.
