Luanda, July 1, 2025 (Lusa) - The deputy governor of the National Bank of Angola (BNA) on Tuesday highlighted cooperation with international financial institutions, including the central bank of France, as fundamental to strengthening the internal capacities of the Angolan institution.
Maria Juliana de Fontes Pereira was speaking at the third edition of the Banking Sustainability Conference, organised by the Angolan Banking Association (Abanc), and the event ran under the theme “Sustainable Financing and the Importance of a Climate and Social Taxonomy for Angola”.
According to the deputy governor of the Angolan central bank, cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the French central bank has been fundamental in strengthening the BNA’s internal capacities within the framework of its strategic pillars of corporate governance, monetary policy, regulation and prudential supervision.
‘This support has enabled the BNA to develop robust tools and methodologies that ensure a cross-cutting approach to sustainability, both in its internal operations and in its role as a catalyst for the national financial system,’ Maria Juliana de Fontes Pereira noted.
Speaking to the press, the deputy governor of the BNA said that the support is mainly linked to training, which is the Angolan central bank’s main focus at the moment, to “level the playing field” and pass on to the system new strategies acquired from these institutions, which are already very advanced in these areas.
The president of Abanc, Mário Nascimento, stated that sustainability has become a central and widespread issue, and it is now a requirement for markets, regulators, investors, and future generations.
Mário Nascimento pointed out that the Angolan central bank has published regulations explicitly incorporating environmental, social, and governance factors into credit risk management, requiring annual sustainability reporting from banking institutions, while commercial banks already publish sustainability reports on their own initiative.
“In turn, we have begun to see demands from some international correspondents, namely clearing partners in United States dollars and euros, especially European and North American banks, which make the availability of financing lines dependent on robust environmental and social management processes,” he stressed.
According to the president of Abanc, the technical cooperation that some banks have with the UFC demonstrates that Angolan banks are already responding to and anticipating the requirements of European directives on international best practices.
“These advances show that sustainability has evolved from an option to a criterion for competitiveness, access to capital, maintaining correspondents and strengthening investor confidence,” he stressed.
The progress achieved to date highlights the need for a common language, according to Mário Nascimento, “to give the market clarity on what constitutes sustainable activity in Angola.”
Mário Nascimento stressed to journalists that the development of a regulatory framework addressing sustainability issues is still underway, and the National Bank of Angola has issued several requirements on this topic, namely climate and social risks, “but not within a structured framework.”
For the president of Abanc, the issue of sustainability requires a common language, a guideline on impact.
Referring to the situation of the Angolan banking sector, the president of Abanc stressed that the concerns are the same as for the rest of the country’s economy, namely, economic development and growth.
According to him, the banking sector has contributed to economic diversification by financing the real sector of the economy and empowering companies from a financial perspective.
NME/ADB // ADB.
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