Bernard Gyebi says Ghana’s real ESG challenge lies not in policy design but in execution — and blended finance is the bridge
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of UBA issued a direct challenge to small and medium enterprise owners — particularly exporters — to embed Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) compliance at the heart of their operations, warning that businesses failing to adopt these principles risk being locked out of increasingly competitive, low-cost financing markets.
Speaking at the 10th Anniversary International Conference of Ghana Export-Import Bank, held at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra, Gyebi called for a decisive break from policy rhetoric, arguing that Ghana’s ESG journey has reached an inflection point where frameworks alone are no longer sufficient.
“Ghana has made strong progress on ESG frameworks, but the gap remains in execution,” he said, underscoring a tension that has come to define the country’s sustainability financing landscape — commendable progress on paper, with the harder work of embedding those principles into actual lending decisions still largely unfinished.
For Gyebi, the shift from design to delivery is not merely administrative — it is urgent. He noted that while the country has built a credible policy architecture around ESG, the real test is whether those frameworks are shaping how banks price risk, structure credit facilities, and determine who gets access to capital.
UBA, he said, has taken that test seriously. As a pan-African financial institution operating across multiple markets, the bank has integrated environmental and social risk assessments directly into its lending processes across key sectors — a move that is already influencing how facilities are structured and how risk is priced.
But Gyebi was candid about the limits of unilateral action: broader industry alignment, he stressed, is essential if ESG performance is to have a meaningful and consistent impact on credit access and financing terms across the market.
Gyebi’s call carries the weight of a bank that has moved well beyond declarations. UBA has partnered with Renewvia Energy Corporation to deploy solar microgrids across its Nigerian operations, cutting carbon emissions while delivering cleaner energy to its branches.
On the financing side, the bank has collaborated with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) under the SUNREF programme to channel funding toward businesses investing in solar energy and energy efficiency solutions — directly supporting a more sustainable private sector.
At the continental level, UBA has secured a $175 million facility from the African Development Bank earmarked for infrastructure and energy development. Separately, its partnership with the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) is opening financing corridors for green SMEs through a $100 million credit line, backed by a $50 million risk guarantee — a structure designed to lower the barrier of entry for smaller businesses typically viewed as high-risk borrowers.
Together, these initiatives position UBA as a significant mobiliser of climate finance across Africa, actively working to de-risk green investments and accelerate the continent’s transition to a low-carbon economy.
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On the question of instruments, Gyebi offered a grounded assessment of where Ghana currently stands. While green bonds and sustainability-linked financial products are gaining momentum in global markets, he argued that the Ghanaian context demands solutions that are both practical and scalable — not products engineered for sophisticated markets elsewhere. His answer: was blended finance.
Gyebi identified blended finance facilities as the most effective ESG financing mechanism for the local market, particularly for exporters in the SME segment. By combining concessional funding with commercial capital, blended finance structures absorb a portion of the risk that would otherwise make lenders hesitant — effectively building a bridge between the ambitions of ESG policy and the financing realities facing Ghana’s exporters on the ground.
For SME owners listening in the room, the message was unambiguous: ESG compliance is no longer a reputational nicety. Increasingly, it is the credential that determines whether a business qualifies for the kind of financing that can help it grow, compete internationally, and weather an uncertain economic climate.