Voted “Outstanding Business Sustainability” by the Karlsruhe Sustainable Finance awards in 2016, Access Bank’s outstanding CSR initiatives have yet again received wide applause with some one thousand and three hundred (1,300) volunteering employees undertaking various social intervention initiatives, and impacting over 160 communities nationwide as part of its Employee Volunteering programme (EVP) in 2016.

This feat marks an increase in the number of communities from 136 communities in 2015. Focus areas for the Bank’s CSR initiatives covered education, health, environment, sports, arts and culture.

Helping to deepen the Bank’s community engagements, these projects have directly impacted the lives of some 8,000 people including children, women and the under-privileged in society, with 4,000 persons being indirect beneficiaries of the numerous projects which were deliberately targeted at critical areas of national development.

Since 2015, the Bank’s CSR projects have focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations and the 2016 projects covered Goals 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 13. The alignment of the Bank’s CSR initiatives to these SDGs enables a meaningful contribution by the Bank in helping the country achieve its millennium development goals.

The Bank also has a strong belief that the inclusion of employees in achieving these SDGs elicits a deep sense of fulfilment as well as building a strong advocacy for employee empowerment as a meaningful tool for national development.

Key projects undertaken in 2016 include the adoption of the Tetteh Ocloo State School for the Deaf by the Access Women Network, an all-female staff group within the Bank. The school received financial support for refurbishment of classrooms and assembly hall as well as furnishing of their dormitories.

Volunteering employees of the Bank also partnered the Ring Road wing of the Ghana Rotary Club and ‘Run for the Cure’ to organise a blood donation exercise and marathon aimed at raising awareness about giving blood for life and breast cancer respectively.

Some institutions in various communities who were also project beneficiaries include Sunyani Prisons, Mampong School for the Deaf, Kpenoe EP Primary School, University of Ghana, Ohwimase M/A Basic School, Nsawam Government Hospital, Kemsco M/A Junior High School and many others.

Speaking on the rationale for the EVP focusing on the SDGs, the Head of Corporate Communications at Access Bank, Mr. Nana Adu Kyeremateng mentioned sustainability as a critical aspect of the Bank’s business and stressed on the importance of being involved in the communities in which the Bank operates to ensure the Bank’s objectives of creating value for these communities are met.

“By adopting the SDGs in 2015, we did not only ensure it helps us achieve our community impact objectives, this also guaranteed a systematic approach to supporting the country meet these goals by 2030 and that is our commitment”, he added.