Banks in Africa — including Absa, RMB, Nedbank, KCB, and Standard Bank — are driving critical SDG-focused projects.
Even though Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, the continent faces a funding gap as the 2030 target approaches to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations and tailored to the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
The SDGs aim to improve living standards for the African population by addressing issues such as hunger, education, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, inequality, and infrastructure.
While scrutiny of sustainability has increased, the African sustainable-finance market has continued to grow over the past two years. Debt volumes have been rising, for example, reaching a record of almost $13 billion in 2024, according to S&P Global.
However, the volume of sustainable bonds issued is less than 1% of the global total, which is insufficient to address Africa’s infrastructure and development needs. To meet these needs, Africa would need to close a funding gap between $670 billion and $762 billion per year by 2030, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank, with the majority of the gap concentrated in the continent’s less developed countries.
This equates to a need for about $1.3 trillion in funding per year to fully achieve Africa’s SDGs. Despite these challenges, there have been significant advances in Africa as a direct result of efforts by African banks. Most importantly, this work has facilitated dramatic improvements in health outcomes over the past decade that are well above progress made elsewhere in the world.
Kenya Commercial Bank
Best Bank for Sustaining Communities
Sustainability is the Kenya Commercial Bank’s foundation for inclusive growth and economic resilience, and the bank’s success directly influences the health of the communities in which it operates. Through the KCB Foundation,
the bank invests in education, climate adaptation, and inclusion. The foundation’s 2Jiajiri program has created almost 61,000 jobs and provided support through vocational training and financial access to about 37,000 businesses. A collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation expanded access to finance and training to entrepreneurs.
KCB also prioritizes community investment projects for water security, education, sustainable agriculture, and inclusion for vulnerable groups. These projects include five community boreholes in Marsabit, Kenya, that provide water to about 27,000 households and 95,000 livestock animals; scholarships that end poverty for families; financing and equipment for about 3,400 livestock farmers and 15 producer groups; and cash-transfer programs for 22,000 refugees.
Absa
Best Bank for Sustainable Finance
Best Impact Investing Solution
Best Bank for Sustainable Infrastructure/Project Finance
Best Bank for Green Bonds
Absa is committed to building a sustainable future in Africa by financing projects that drive positive change, support the continent’s transition to clean energy, and nurture equitable, resilient, and future-focused communities. The bank is working to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. To work toward this goal, Absa has facilitated and arranged over 29.1 billion South African rands ($1.8 billion) in sustainable-finance transactions in 2025.
The bank contributed 1.6 billion rand as part of a larger 3.8 billion rand debt-financing package to support power producer Red Rocket’s 150-megawatt (MW) wind project. The project will supply 100% renewable energy to Discovery Green, which in turn provides it to medium-and large-sized companies. The package will fund the project’s full life cycle, from design through construction to operations and maintenance.
Absa also contributed 50% of the 9.4 billion rand debt package for the Red Sands Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) through project-finance lending, hedging, guarantees, and agency and account bank services. Once operational, this landmark transaction under South Africa’s Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme will be the largest standalone BESS in Africa. To reduce operational risk, the revenue model is based on availability and not dispatched energy. The project provides environmental and grid benefits through load shifting—energy is stored during the day and dispatched during peak periods—to create greater grid stability and capacity for additional renewable-energy projects.
Rand Merchant Bank
Sustainable Finance Deal of the Year (British International Investment Transition Finance Facility)
Best Bank for Social Bonds
Best Bank for Transition/Sustainability-Linked Loans
Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) has been actively tackling climate resilience and a just transition to a low-carbon world. To accomplish this, the bank incorporates climate factors into its capital allocation, risk appetite, portfolio monitoring, and reporting.
In 2025, the bank completed several landmark transactions, such as FirstRand Bank’s first social-bond issuance for female-owned businesses, totaling 2.5 billion rands. This bond directly addresses barriers to financial inclusion, economic participation, and job creation for women by providing capital to women entrepreneurs.
RMB also arranged for the refinancing of Mediclinic’s 9 billion rand sustainability-linked loan across four lenders in what is currently one of the largest syndicated sustainable-finance transactions in South Africa. Mediclinic operates private hospitals that provide multidisciplinary acute care in South Africa and Namibia.
The bank has also developed a new transition-finance asset class and associated framework for allocating funds to projects facilitating emissions reductions. RMB served as the transition-finance adviser to FirstRand in the 2.6 billion rand facility from British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor. This facility mobilized international capital for Africa’s climate goals by funding transition loans across South Africa and the broader continent to support the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors, such as industrials, energy, and cement. The facility also creates a blueprint for how private and development finance can work together to advance the energy transition in emerging markets.
Nedbank
Best Platform/Technology Facilitating Sustainable Finance
Best Bank for Sustainability Transparency
Nedbank is working toward having the entirety of its lending and investment portfolio support a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. The bank’s strategy supports clients and communities while focusing on scalable sustainable-development finance that advances economic decarbonization and inclusive growth.
The bank incorporates transparency into its energy policy so that stakeholders can better understand and monitor its progress. Nedbank tracks and reports its environmental impact, to include exposure to thermal coal, oil, gas, and power generation. Along with Nedbank’s energy policy and nature-position statement, the bank produces glide paths with a framework for its net-zero transition. Position statements on climate change and nature address related risks and opportunities and provide thought leadership on sustainability issues and financing.
Nedbank also leverages technology and analytical tools that provide integral insight into its sustainable financings. The bank’s Climate Risk Tool analyzes how various climate events affect financed properties. The bank captures data not native to its existing systems and uses these in combination with existing data to estimate and report financed emissions that align with accounting methodologies.
Nedbank’s Building Efficiency Scale captures water and energy efficiencies in buildings, and the inhouse EDGE certification tool democratizes green-building certifications to address the low number of green-certified buildings in South Africa.
Standard Bank
Best Bank for Sustainability Bonds
Best Bank for ESG-Related Loans
Standard Bank has made sustainability a strategic priority and uses an approach that maximizes the positive impact while successfully managing risk. The bank focuses on business growth and job creation, infrastructure development, climate mitigation and adaptation, and financial health and inclusion.
The bank served as sole arranger and sustainability coordinator for the Industrial Development Corporation’s inaugural 2 billion rand sustainable bond and 1.4 billion rand private placement. These bonds were listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Sustainability Segment and are helping advance South Africa’s transition to a more inclusive, low-carbon economy. The bonds will fund projects in renewable energy; energy efficiency; sustainable water management; clean transport; socioeconomic advancement; and MSME financing. They will also support initiatives for grid decarbonization and the growth of independent power producers.
Standard Bank also delivered a 6.1 billion rand debt package to the NOA Group to design, construct, commission, and operate the 505 MW Khauta solar photovoltaic (PV) facility in South Africa. This landmark project includes plans to build a BESS and connect an existing substation to the province’s strong grid via overhead lines. In addition to reducing carbon emissions, this green project will create jobs during construction and operation.
