National stakeholders convened in late July to provide feedback on PAGE’s draft study on access to green finance for businesses in Ghana. Green – or sustainable – finance can be loosely defined as finance resources generated to target positive social, economic and environmental outcomes or business practices.
The meetings took place after an initial consultation, held on July 13th, which provided an opportunity for representatives from the financial sector, representatives from the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance, and representatives from other ministries that serve on the PAGE Ghana Steering Committee to review and provide feedback on an initial draft of the study.
This most recent meeting served as a forum for obtaining feedback on the study from a wider selection of stakeholders including representatives from business and industry associations, rural lenders, academia, media, UN agencies, bilateral donors, and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. It also provided an opportunity for participants to share information about the challenges businesses face in obtaining green finance and provided insights into the criteria lenders apply in deciding whether to grant loans in support of green objectives to businesses. The participants also divided themselves into small groups to brainstorm around key topics: policy levers to drive green finance lending, development of a green finance program and capacity building requirements.
The feedback gathered from participants over the course of the two consultations will be used to further develop the PAGE study on access to green finance in Ghana. This study is intended to help policymakers address encumbrances to access to green finance and simultaneously generate demand from businesses for such financing. The feedback from the second consultation will also inform a green finance capacity building program also supported by PAGE that will be implemented by a national learning institution. The institution will be chosen through a competitive bidding process administered by PAGE.