Impacts

With a sales development logic in mind, the Sustainable Development & CSR team in conjunction with the Group's commercial teams have developed positive impact Sustainable Finance programmes in cooperation with development organisations.

In just a few years, BANK OF AFRICA has truly consolidated its position as a leader in responsible and inclusive finance. Today, its green and sustainable investments represent nearly MAD 4 billion in favour of the energy transition, in particular renewable energies, energy efficiency, waste management and recovery, sanitation and wastewater treatment but also in favour of women entrepreneurs and African SMEs.

BANK OF AFRICA continues its strategy of supporting women entrepreneurs through its Women in Business programme.

Conducted in partnership with the EBRD, this programme provides a €20 million credit facility and preferential conditions for the bank on a daily basis, and goes along with training and coaching.

Launched in October 2019, the offer integrates a non-financial support programme: training courses, coaching, and seminars to develop networking.

The Group has designed a support solution called Women In Business (WIB) in partnership with the EBRD. Its goal is to reach both at an economic and social impact. This programme is based on a credit facility of up to MAD200 million, and offers a complete solution for women entrepreneurs. In addition to the financing aspect, the WIB offer meets women entrepreneurs' needs in terms of banking services, training and consulting.

As part of the national measures for the development of VSEs, BANK OF AFRICA has positioned itself as one of the first banks to make an active commitment to entrepreneurs.

The royal speech of October 2019 allowed to accelerate the design of specific financing offers dedicated to SMEs, especially for those wishing to expand on the continent. After the Istitmar Croissance programme, BANK OF AFRICA is fully investing through the CAP TPE 2020 project. These products concern both the creation and the development of the entrepreneur's activity, whether he or she is established as a personal business, a self-employed individual, or as a Legal Entity. CAP TPE 2020 was deployed in February 2020.

BANK OF AFRICA is behind the financing of one of the world's largest desalination plants for drinking water and irrigation.  This infrastructure, which is located in the area of Agadir, meets both the region's irrigation and drinking water supply needs. It also offers the possibility of being harnessed by wind energy, which would strengthen the project's vocation to preserve underground resources and promote green energies.

BANK OF AFRICA was the first Moroccan bank to issue a green bond (considered as a “positive impact bond”) by Public Offering on the local market. This MAD 500 million green bond debt was issued in November 2016, and received approval from the Vigeo Eiris agency, validating the consideration of Sustainable Development factors and the vocation to finance eco-responsible national projects and initiatives for the preservation of natural resources.

Capital ISR, the first SRI Fund launched by BMCE Capital Gestion, has achieved a performance of +18.37% since its launch in March 2015 at the end of 2019 against a performance of +8.70% for the Moroccan equity market as a whole.

It should be noted that the Capital ISR unit fund is invested in shares of companies selected according to an extra-financial analysis, taking into account an evaluation of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policy of each company, carried out by the leading international extra-financial rating agency Vigeo Eiris.

The objective of the fund is to reconcile financial performance with (i) taking into account the governance quality, (ii) the environmental footprint and (iii) the social footprint in the selection and management of investments.

The Capital ISR unit fund thus allows investors to increase the value of their capital through an investment vehicle that is in line with their conviction of social ethics, while contributing to responsible corporate behaviour and sustainable development.