This archive report was first published on 8 July 2019.
July 8, 2019 - Nairobi, Kenya - Equity Bank has made history by being named the most socially responsible bank in Africa during the prestigious African Banker Awards 2019.
The bank's commitment to positively impacting different African communities has earned it this top honor, beating out other notable banks such as Access Bank (Nigeria), Bank Misr (Egypt), KCB (Kenya), and Qalaa Holdings (Egypt) in the Responsible Bank category.
Equity Bank's success can be attributed to its initiatives under the Equity Group Foundation, which focuses on five key areas: education and leadership development, entrepreneurship and financial education, health, agriculture and agribusiness, and energy and environment.
Some of the notable programs initiated by the bank include the Wings to Fly program, which has improved secondary school education access for 16,168 students, and the Financial Literacy training that has benefited over 1.7 million citizens.
Additionally, the bank has provided clean energy products to over 400,000 households and transformed 638,522 peasant farmers into agribusiness entrepreneurs.
According to Omar Ben Yedder, the publisher of African Banker magazine, the banking sector has continued to register improvement each year.
"We've been following the work of the financial services industry for many years. The sector over the years has seen great returns, and 2018 was another strong year for banks," he said.
