Advans Ghana Savings and Loans, has won three awards at the just-ended 4th “Sustainability and Social Investment Award Ceremony”, held in Accra, for its outstanding performance in the financial sector and contribution to national development.

Having been nominated in the top five categories, Advans Ghana won the award of “Best Company in Project Promoting and Supporting Agriculture and Agribusiness”; a reward which recognised their growing and innovative value chain activities in supporting the development of agriculture in Ghana, especially financing smallholder farmers.

A statement from Advans Ghana, copied to the Ghana News Agency said.

Since 2017, Advans Ghana has disbursed GHS4.3 million to over 17,000 smallholder farmers for inputs, to increase productivity and yield for farmers, marking them as a key financial institution for financing agriculture in Ghana.

The second honour was the “Social Investment Project of the Year (Environment)”, an award that was relatable to the institution’s ‘Tree Planting Project’.

Commenting on the award, Mrs Barbara Odei, the Chief Sales and Distribution Officer, Advans Ghana, said as global warming festered on, management saw the need to embark on reducing their paper consumption.

The Tree Planting Exercise, therefore, aimed at compensating for its yearly consumption of paper to reduce its negative impact on the environment.

Advans Ghana also partnered with ‘Royal Seed Orphanage’ and in November 2019, the institution planted over 350 fruit trees in the orphanage home, to help the orphanage regularly provide fruits to the children, improve their health, and generate additional income by selling part of the produce.

Mr Olivier Bailly Béchet, the Chief Executive Officer of Advans Ghana Savings and Loans, was also rewarded as the “Foreign Personality of the Year”, for his special individual efforts towards making a great impact on society.

He dedicated the award to the clients, staff, and partners of Advans, the statement said.

The 4th Sustainability and Social Investment Awards is a scheme that recognises the efforts of corporate Institutions in pushing for the Social Development Goals.

Advans Ghana Savings and Loans Ltd is a subsidiary of the Advans Group headquartered in Paris with a presence in nine countries in Africa and Asia and serving more than one million clients.

In Ghana, Advans operates in 20 branches across eight regions with the head office located in Accra-Newtown.

Advans Ghana’s mission is to provide client-centric financial services to small businesses and under-served populations sustainably and responsibly.