Climate Change Data

Equity Group Holdings Plc

Climate Impact & Sustainability Data (2023)

Reporting Period: 2023

Environmental Metrics

Total Carbon Emissions:513,086 metric tons of CO2 reduced

ESG Focus Areas

  • Climate Change
  • Biodiversity
  • Financial Inclusion
  • Enterprise Development
  • Education
  • Health
  • Social Protection
  • Sustainable Agriculture
  • Responsible Supply Chain Management
  • Data Privacy
  • Human Rights
  • Governance

Environmental Achievements

  • Reduced carbon emissions by 513,086 metric tons through deployment of clean energy products
  • Planted 25.2 million trees cumulatively
  • 100,000 clean energy products financed

Social Achievements

  • 60,009 scholarships issued through Wings to Fly and Elimu Scholarship
  • 3,471 TVET scholars enrolled from program inception
  • 1,266,182 jobs created
  • 193,611 MSMEs mentored and coached in entrepreneurship education and digital literacy
  • 517,247 MSMEs benefitted from training, mentorship, coaching and access to finance
  • 2,143,344 cumulative patient visits to Equity Afia clinics
  • 3.8m farmers reached through trainings, mentorship, and linkage to markets and financial services
  • 5.4m beneficiaries reached through social protection
  • 83% staff retention rate
  • Shs 316.5m spend on employee training
  • 10,328 employees trained
  • 16,723 cumulative training hours attained

Governance Achievements

  • Strengthened subsidiary boards through the nomination of new board members
  • Revamped boards to align board skills with ARRP strategy
  • Acquisition of Compagnie Générale de Banque (Cogebanque) in Rwanda
  • Established Board committees on IT and Sustainability
  • Developed an environmental and social management plan
  • Prepared an annual Sustainability Report

Climate Goals & Targets

Medium-term Goals:
  • Grow to 100 million customers by 2030
  • Reach 5 million borrowing businesses by 2030
  • Support 25 million borrowing customers by 2030
  • Create 25 million direct jobs by 2030
  • Food and Agriculture loan mix of 30% by 2030
  • Manufacturing loan mix of 15% by 2030
  • MSME loan mix of 65% by 2030
Short-term Goals:
  • Reduce the running cost of IT by 10% in 2024

Environmental Challenges

  • Challenging macroeconomic environment with high inflation, increased interest rates, and local currency depreciation impacting customers
  • Rise in Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) to 11.7% from 7.7%
  • Increased cost of funding and deposits
  • Global and regional inflation and depreciation of local currencies
  • Kenya being grey listed by the Financial Action Task Force
Mitigation Strategies
  • Moderated the impact of inflation into operational costs and absorbed the rise in interest rates without fully transferring the effect to customers
  • Significantly increased loan loss provisions to Shs 32.8 billion from Shs 13.7 billion
  • Achieved a strong NPL coverage ratio at 67.3%
  • Implementing additional measures to strengthen capabilities in preventing financial crimes
  • Enhanced ESG credentials through the development of an environmental and social management plan and key recruits for the function as well as preparing an annual Sustainability Report

Supply Chain Management

Responsible Procurement
  • Group Procurement Policy

Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities

Reporting Standards

Frameworks Used: International Integrated Reporting Framework (IIRF), International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), Code of Corporate Governance for Issuers of Securities in Kenya, Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards for Tax (GRI -207)

Certifications: ISO 20000: 2018, ISO 27001: 2022, SWIFT CSP 2023, PCI – DSS 3.2.1

Third-party Assurance: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Sustainable Products & Innovation

  • EcoMoto loan for clean energy

Awards & Recognition

  • 2nd strongest banking brand in the world (Brand Finance)
  • AAA+ brand strength rating (Brand Finance)
  • Best Trade Finance Bank in Kenya (GTR)