Sustainable Financing Helping Ghana Respond to Climate Change Risks

As Republic Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL) releases its inaugural Sustainability Report, we mark not only a milestone for our Group, but a deeper commitment to the principles that have guided us for generations.

Over the past decade, West Africa’s climate has been changing in ways that bring both risk and urgency. Increasingly changing rainfall patterns and steadily rising temperatures are placing immense pressure on livelihoods and food security across the region. In Ghana, coastal communities face an average of two metres of land loss each year due to rising seas and erosion.

The momentum for action is clear and it demands a coordinated and sustained response.

Ghana is strengthening its legal and regulatory architecture to guide a more climate-resilient future.
• The Environmental Protection Act, 2025 (Act 1124) represents a landmark step, consolidating environmental legislation and strengthening enforcement, carbon emissions monitoring, and pollution controls under the framework of the Sustainable Banking Principles.
• The Bank of Ghana’s new Climate-Related Financial Risk Directive requires all regulated institutions to integrate climate risk into governance, risk management, and disclosures by the end of 2025.
• Compliance with the Sustainable Banking Principles has risen from 42% in 2021 to over 73% by early 2025 a remarkable signal of the sector’s alignment with global standards.
• The Ministry of Finance’s Ghana Green Finance Taxonomy is guiding investments toward sustainable and climate-resilient projects, supporting Ghana’s commitments under the Paris Agreement.

How Republic Bank Ghana is responding to an evolving sustainability landscape

As the Republic Financial Holdings Group publishes its first Sustainability Report, our subsidiary in Ghana is already making the structural and strategic adjustments needed to lead in this new era. For us, sustainability is not an external requirement, it is a responsibility to our country and a driver of new opportunities.

We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint, strengthening the assessment and management of climate-related risks, and ensuring that our lending, operations, and decision-making processes align with Ghana’s national sustainability priorities.

Our actions reflect this commitment.
• We have provided USD 15.5 million in financing for two solar energy generation projects that are actively expanding Ghana’s renewable energy capacity.
• In alignment with the Sustainable Banking Principles, we launched a Waste Segregation Project to support recycling and reduce internally generated waste.
• We are monitoring resource consumption across all our business locations to reduce our operational carbon footprint.
• Environmental and social risk management has now been integrated into our credit processes to ensure that sustainability considerations inform every stage of lending.

These steps reflect both our responsibility and the tremendous opportunity ahead. Financial institutions will play a defining role in building Ghana’s climate-resilient economy by financing adaptation, supporting innovation, and strengthening communities.

Our inaugural Sustainability Report is more than a milestone. It is a reaffirmation of our commitment to partner with regulators, businesses, and citizens in shaping a more resilient, climate-aware Ghana…a pledge to protect people and the planet while enabling sustainable growth for all.