KPMG contributes insights at The Chartered Institute of Bankers’ 26th National Banking Summit

The Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB) held their 26^th National Banking Summit entitled “The future of banking in Ghana: Ethics, Professionalism and ESG imperatives” at the Accra International Conference Center yesterday morning.

The program featured Dr. Ernest Kwamina Yedu Addison (Governor, Bank of Ghana) as the Keynote speaker and Mrs. Mansa Nettey (President, Ghana Association of Banks) as the Chairperson. Professor Noel Tagoe spoke and gave an interesting presentation on the topic “Navigating and responding to the current disruptive challenges of the banking sector to capturing the next waves of growth”. This was followed by Robert Dzato (CEO, CIB) who delivered an insightful presentation on “Professionalizing banking in a digital era through talents and ethics: The future of professional banking education and regulation”.

Andy Akoto was invited to deliberate on a panel with other thought leaders on the topic “ESG and Sustainable Financing: Opportunities and Strategic Imperatives for Banks".  During the plenary, they discussed a number of topics including what current ESG issues banks should be paying attention to, what ESG means to banks and whether ESG has the power to transform the banking institutions amongst other thought-provoking topics. ​​​​​​​

During the session it was noted that banks need to start thinking outside the box when it comes to ESG and there is a need to help individuals and teams to recalibrate their thinking in ways that can promote ESG within the nation (including the banking sector) as investors and other stakeholders are now focused on ESG principals now more than ever.

Andy stated that organisations that are going to thrive cannot ignore ESG. Which was emphasized by the moderator who exclaimed “Ignore ESG at your own peril!”  He also explained the meaning behind the term ESG, how it links with the 17 sustainable development goals and how these 17 goals can be broken down into Environmental, Social and Governance.  He added that we must interpret ESG to our own circumstances in Ghana and that if we are able to even get our governance (personal governance, corporate governance and national governance) right our systems and policies will work better, therefore bringing accountability to our people.

Robert Dzato closed the session by sharing what the CIB will to do going forward towards the ESG efforts.  He shared the possibility of ESG certifications, that next year the program outlines will be digital (not printed) and they would drive the use technology more.