offer “ health solutions ” after a prognosis has been identified. many of the projects financed by first initiative have helped countries tighten their adherence to international standards and codes for the financial sector. in doing so, i belief in the assertions that first has helped developing countries achieve part of their development goals of building an efficient, inclusive and transparent financial system. the fact that first works closely with the recipient institutions to prioritize technical assistance activities that are consistent with the recipient country plans is a great plus. it re - defines development partnership of donors and recipient countries. i note with great pleasure first model of doing business. it encourages recipient governments to identify their financial sector problems, prioritizes them, and then supports viable solutions. it also pools the efforts of several development agencies, leveraging their expertise and reducing duplication. often, first takes on targeted projects and once completed, first disseminates the results to boost their impact and catalyze long - term support from both development partners and recipient governments. in kenya the vision 2030 has identified that the problems of high interest rate spreads and limited access. the focus then is how to reduce these spreads, raise access and deepen the financial sector. the level of solutions require policy reforms that alleviate market, institutional and political barriers to competition. the vision 2030 has identified areas in which policy reforms can have a major impact in reducing such barriers and thus increasing the effectiveness and competitiveness of financial intermediation. here in kenya, i would like to acknowledge an initiative such as finaccess initiated and partly funded by first which has given us the survey information which has become an integral part of financial market processes and analyses. the results have helped us understand some of the issues in the financial sector and have provided us a better understanding on how to develop the sector. there is an increasing body of evidence to support the view that financial sector development contributes to both economic growth and poverty reduction by affording people greater access to finance. going forward going forward, i have noted with satisfaction that first will seek to strengthen the causal links between its technical assistance and the contributions of deep, orderly financial systems to economic growth, poverty reduction, and social equity. first will do this by increasing its emphasis on achieving market development outcomes, and filling gaps in domestic financial markets. it will also continue to give priority to supporting governments in lower - income countries in developing action plans geared toward these outcomes. such a move is welcomed in the region where there has been a very

greening kenya ’ s banking sector dr. patrick njoroge governor, central bank of kenya november 2021 ( 766 words ) we have a problem. the recently released state of the climate in africa 2020 report, indicates that in 2020, the climate indicators in africa, were characterized by extreme weather events such as floods and droughts, increasing temperatures and accelerated rise in sea - levels. the associated impact was devastating. the report also notes that by 2030, up to 118 million extremely poor people will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat in africa, if response measures are inadequate. additionally, climate change could further lower gross domestic product ( gdp ) in sub - saharan africa by up to 3 percent by 2050. and africa is not alone. it is against this dire backdrop in africa and the world that the 26th un climate change conference of the parties ( cop26 ) is convening in glasgow, scotland. it brings together governments, businesses, civil society and citizens with the expectation of commitments to ambitious actions that are needed to counter climate change. further delays in these commitments or if they are unambitious would spell doom to our destiny. in the build up to cop26, kenya and other countries have been scaling up their climate actions at the sectoral and national levels. it is in this context that the central bank of kenya ( cbk ) issued guidance on climate - related risk management ( guidance ) to the banking sector, on october 15, 2021. the guidance is aimed at enabling banks to integrate climate - related risks into their governance, strategy, risk management and disclosure frameworks. climate change poses three broad risks to banks. first, the physical risk to the loan portfolio arising from damage or loss caused by climate and weather related events such as floods and drought. second, the transition risk arising from the changes towards a low carbon ( green ) economy. for instance, the abandonment of previously well - entrenched energy sources such as coal may lead to banks being left with obsolete stranded assets that were used to secure loans. third, liability risk that could arise from banks being sued for financing companies whose activities negatively impact the environment. nevertheless, efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change also generate business opportunities for banks. these include the adoption of low emission energy sources, development of new products and services, access to new markets, housing and resilient infrastructure. finance sits at the center of business, and cbk ’ s vision is a banking sector that works for and with