Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Cape Verde Stock Exchange was awarded two international awards for its actions “within the scope of promoting sustainability through the issuance of sustainable financial instruments”, announced this Tuesday the President of the Stock Exchange, Miguel Monteiro.
The two awards were given to the Cape Verde Stock Exchange (BVC) by Global Banking and Finance Review, a publication that offers news, analysis and opinions on the latest trends, developments and innovations in the banking and finance industry around the world.
The first prize, the Most Innovative ESG Initiative Western Africa 2024 “recognizes the Stock Exchange’s commitment to implementing innovative ESG practices, that is, linked to the environment, social and governance, highlighting, in this specific case, through the BLU-X platform, a strategic support platform, which was created with the strategic support of UNDP, with the main focus on promoting sustainability through the issuance of sustainable financial products, such as Blue Bonds, Green Bonds, Social Bonds, among others ”, said Miguel Monteiro at a press conference.
According to this person, since the beginning of the BLU-X project, until December 2023, seven sustainable bonds have already been issued, including three Social Bonds, two Green Bonds, one Blue Bond and one Sustainability Bond, “and approximately 4.48 billion escudos through these issues to finance projects related to the blue economy, social and environmental sustainability”.
The second prize is related to the best ESG social bond in West Africa for the year 2024 and follows the issuance of the Social Bond social bond, carried out by Morabi which, based on the allocation and impact report regarding the use of resources in the end of the first year, and preliminary data on the use of resources at the end of the second year, “highlight the following aspects: more than 40% of beneficiaries are under 35 years old, more than 75% of financing went to activities promoted by women, more than 770 jobs were protected, more than 100 new jobs were created, more than 2 thousand indirect beneficiaries, an additional 58 million escudos in loans granted, a reduction of around 265% in the waiting time for access to financing, and, finally, an important reduction of 50% in interest rate costs for customers”, reported Miguel Monteiro.
The BVC president also highlighted that the “Stock Exchange was the only institution in West Africa to receive an award at a regional level. Other entities from West Africa were awarded, but these won awards at local level”.
The awards awarded to BVC, added Miguel Monteiro, are a reflection of “the fundamental role that the Exchange must play in promoting responsible financial practices and signaling financing for sustainable development in West Africa”.
“It is a testimony to the commitment of the Cape Verde Stock Exchange to adopt concrete measures to face socio-environmental challenges and build a fairer, more equitable and sustainable future for all Cape Verdeans”.
International recognition
Asked about how the awarding of the prizes was processed, Miguel Monteiro chose to highlight the international recognition of the work carried out by BVC.
“It was in this context that we were invited to take on projects that could be considered innovative and, in this specific case, we came forward with these two proposals that ended up winning because, in practice, they are proposals that show something new in relation to what has been has been assisting, in this specific case, on the African continent.
Taking stock of the journey made so far by the BLU-X platform and whether it has already been able to attract foreign investors, Miguel Monteiro assured that this is work that is already being done.
“We are talking about potential investors, from the United States to Germany and France”, he stressed, highlighting, on the other hand, that the amounts of projects in Cape Verde “are relatively smaller than what these investors normally want. We, with these seven projects, have already financed around more than 40 million euros, but normally these types of investors want to have values of at least 100 million for a project”, he concluded.
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