Case study: How Zenith Bank takes action on its PRB targets: climate action and food security

Stakeholder identification and consultation

Please describe which stakeholders (or groups/ types of stakeholders) you have identified, consulted, engaged, collaborated or partnered with for the purpose of implementing the Principles and improving your bank’s impacts. This should include a high-level overview of how your bank has identified relevant stakeholders, what issues were addressed/results achieved and how they fed into the action planning process.

Zenith Bank’s stakeholders encompass groups or individuals with an interest in the Bank and affected by its activities, products, or services. They comprise investors, employees, customers, suppliers, communities, industry peers, local and national government agencies, media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international institutions. Through its robust stakeholder engagement and management process, Zenith Bank considers all these stakeholder categories in its responsible business decisions.

Some concerns raised by Zenith Bank’s stakeholder groups include:

Employees: health and safety, compensation and benefits, training and development, work-life balance, and employee volunteering.

Investors: financial performance, return on investments, investor relations, sustainable finance, and communication.

Customers: awareness of information security, processing time for electronic transactions, handling of claims and disputes, transaction fees and charges, updates/offers of products and services, incentives, and access to cash.

Suppliers: policy reviews, payment cycle, adherence to signed service level agreements (SLAs), complaint resolution, consideration of environmental and social risks and adherence to COVID-19 protocols while maintaining excellent service delivery, awareness of information security and privacy, monitoring and evaluation.

Government: foreign exchange rate practices, regulatory compliance, banking reforms, effective risk management and prevention of systemic risks, lending to the real sector, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), anti-corruption measures, money laundering, and financial inclusion.

NGOs: collaboration on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), communication and initiatives related to corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Media: products and services, effective feedback mechanisms, social media presence.

What actions were taken by Zenith Bank on its PRB targets, climate action and food security?

In its 2023 Principles for Responsible Banking Reporting and Self-Assessment Zenith Bank reports that it took the following actions on its PRB targets, climate action and food security:

• SMART Target 1: Climate action
• Zenith Bank has released its Climate-related Risk Management Policy, outlining the Bank’s framework for managing climate-related risks. This includes governance structure, investment management approach, risk management measures, and the corresponding required disclosures to be made available to clients and investors. Zenith Bank is currently developing a reporting template for the Bank’s Climate Risk Management, which will be monitored and reported to the Executive Committee and Board on a quarterly basis.

• SMART Target 2: Food security
• The bank-led initiative undergoes renewal every 100 days (quarterly), with a fresh set of companies chosen for financing under the initiative. Monitoring of the Bank’s 100 for 100 initiative is conducted by the Agricultural Credit unit, in cooperation with the Treasury Operations Department, Treasury Department, and the Financial Control & Strategic Planning Department. Projects funded under the initiative undergo verification and monitoring throughout the loan period by the CBN and PFI. Reports on the process and execution of this initiative are forwarded to the Central Bank of Nigeria quarterly.

UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Accelerating a positive global transition for people and the planet

With over 300 signatory banks representing almost half of the global banking industry, the Principles for Responsible Banking are the world’s foremost sustainable banking framework. Through these Principles, the banking community takes action to align core strategies, decision-making, lending and investment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement.

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The combination of all the above empowers FBRH to provide first class Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) assurance services.

References:

This case study is based on published information by Zenith Bank, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.zenithbank.com/media/3110/Zenith-PRB-Report-2023.pdf

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