ACCESS GHANA RSF (IFC-46341)

Countries
  • Ghana
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Jun 27, 2024
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
ACCESS BANK GHANA RSF
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Guarantee
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 10.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 20.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Jul 29, 2024

Disclosed by Bank May 9, 2024

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Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, the projects entails an unfunded Risk Sharing Facility (“RSF) of up to US$ 10 million equivalent in LCY, guaranteeing 50% of an up to US$20 million small and medium enterprises (“SME”) loan portfolio to be originated by Access Bank Ghana Limited. The Project will support the Bank to enhance its lending to SMEs. The Project will be processed under IFC’s Small Loans Guarantee Program (SLGP EC/PSW, or the Program), a programmatic approach to de-risk and scale up financing for SMEs in eligible countries.                                                 

Early Warning System Project Analysis
For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

The proposed investment entails a risk sharing facility of up to US$10million with Access Bank Ghana on a portfolio of eligible MSMEs. The Bank’s current SME portfolio includes exposures to sectors such as commerce sector and contactors, agriculture, and construction and real estate. As such, the portfolio supported under the RSF is expected to comprise business activities with limited adverse environmental and social risks or impacts that are few in number, generally site-specific, largely reversible and readily addressable through mitigation measures.

The main E&S risks and impacts of this project relate to the ability of Access Bank Ghana to identify and manage the potential E&S risks and impacts associated with the lending activities to SMEs, as well as the bank’s labor practices. The E&S risks and impacts associated with SME activities are typically low to medium environmental and social risks such as waste management, pollution prevention, labor and working conditions and occupational health and safety, etc.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

The Project consists of an up to US$10 million unfunded Risk Sharing Facility equivalent in LCY, guaranteeing 50% of an up to US$20 million portfolio of loans to small and medium enterprises (“SME”).

Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Access Bank Ghana is a Tier II Bank in Ghana that is listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange and an existing client of IFC since 2015. Access Bank Ghana is a subsidiary of Access Bank Limited in Nigeria.

The Bank operates 53 branches and 89 ATM centres in major cities in Ghana, has a network of 350 agents to support financial inclusion, a total of 579 staff and serves more than 1.82 million customers.


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Access Bank Ghana
Mr. Olumide Olatunji
Regional Managing Director
+233 (0) 302661541
Olumide.olatunji@accessbankplc.com
PO Box GP 353, Accra, Ghana
www.accessbankplc.com

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org

How it works

How it works