Access Bank increases affordable lending to solar energy

LAGOS – Access Bank, Nigeria’s largest bank by assets, has unveiled its ‘Switch to Solar by Access’ campaign to offer affordable financing opportunities to businesses and customers to adopt a cleaner and more reliable source of electricity through solar photovoltaic (PV) and batteries.

Njideka Esomeju, Group Head, Consumer Banking, at Access Bank, while unveiling the campaign, said: “In align­ment with our commitment to social responsibility and sustainable development, Access Bank Retail banking aims to promote cleaner en­ergy solutions within our communities.

“Recognising the critical role that renewable energy plays in reducing carbon footprints and fostering envi­ronmental sustainability, we are launching a targeted ini­tiative to facilitate the acqui­sition of solar power products through flexible financing op­tions with the Switch to solar product.

“We launched the initia­tive, which ensures that each household can have solar energy, first of all, to reduce costs for them, provide clearer energy and the product will be financed by the bank.

She stated that in ensuring this the bank is in collabora­tion with credited vendors across the country that are selling solar products. We are collaborating with them to en­sure that these are gotten at a good rate. We aim to ensure that all households, commer­cial businesses and industrial factories are powered by solar.

Speaking on the bank alignment to ESG, the Re­gional Sales Director of Access Bank, Bolarinwa Animashaun said that the switch-to-solar was born based on engagement with customers of the bank.

“We needed to assist them to provide alternative ways to power their operations. We all know the cost of the tariff of electricity”, he said.

He added that the bank is contributing to the Economic, Social and Governance (ESG) seventh goal that was adopted by the United Nations as this specifically aligns it with a global brand.