“For a development bank, sustainability cannot be separated from its fundamental purpose. The businesses it finances, the sectors it supports and the investments it enables influence the direction of an economy for decades.
The decision of the National Development Bank of Botswana to embark upon Sustainability Certification under the Sustainability Standards and Certification Initiative (SSCI) therefore represents more than an institutional commitment. It is a commitment to strengthen how the Bank uses its mandate, financing and institutional capabilities to contribute to Botswana’s economic transformation.
NDB has served Botswana for more than six decades and today operates across sectors that are central to the country’s economic future. As the Bank itself evolves, the challenge is to ensure that its financing increasingly enables competitive businesses, stronger value chains, greater value addition and new sources of economic growth that generate lasting social and environmental value.
Sustainability Certification provides the institutional framework for this transformation—embedding sustainability into how the Bank is governed, how it develops its business, how capital is allocated and, ultimately, what its financing enables Botswana’s economy to become.
For NDB, the Certificate of Acceptance marks its formal commitment to this institutional transformation. Its significance will ultimately be measured not by the Certificate itself, but by the institution NDB becomes and the value its financing enables across Botswana’s economy.
I congratulate Ms Ogone Madisa, Chief Executive Officer of NDB, the Board, management and the entire NDB team for taking on this responsibility. I look forward to seeing NDB translate this commitment into a stronger model of national development banking—one that combines financial strength, sustainability and clear economic purpose to help build a more competitive, diversified and high-value Botswana.”
Arshad Rab
Chairman, International Council of Sustainability Standards for Value-Driven Financial Institutions and CEO, European Organisation for Sustainable Development (EOSD)
