Sustainability is firmly embedded in the formation of Guaranty Trust Bank. As a first-class financial services provider with an internal obligation to comply with international best practices, our Bank has always ensured that its lending activities comply with international performance standards as well as applicable national economic, environmental and social regulations.
Our focus on excellence and sustainability has helped us attract on-lending facilities from international finance institutions very early in our business.
Guaranty Trust Bank (Rwanda) plc continues to build internal capacity in managing the economical, social and environmental aspects of its operations, guided by a comprehensive Project Sustainability Policy. We conduct environmental and social due diligence on major Credit requests, benchmarking against the performance standards of reputable international finance institutions. This process provides a firm foundation upon which we identify new opportunities to grow our businesses, and gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. These performance standards also ensure our conduct influences our customers and other stakeholders positively.
As our corporate strategic aspirations grow, we remain proudly African with an international outlook. We are committed to the creation of long term value for all our stakeholders by measuring not only the impact of our activities on the economies and communities where we operate but also the external environmental outcomes of transactions funded by our Bank. We will partner with our clients, customers, regulators and communities in analyzing our individual and collective economic, environmental and social risks with a view to avoiding or reducing adverse impacts.
Guaranty Trust Bank (Rwanda) plc will continue to be transparent in its conduct and operations; learning and improving on our Sustainability journey. As we set stretch goals for our Bank over the coming years, we pledge to measure our successes through the prism of Sustainability.
Our Sustainability priorities are borne of various expectations arising from ourselves and our stakeholders. They include:
Our Code of Corporate Governance represents the core values upon which the Bank was founded and is designed to ensure accountability of the Board and Management to stakeholders.
In our view, good corporate governance goes beyond adhering to rules and policies of the regulators, it is about consistently going the extra mile to create excellent value for our stakeholders using the best possible principles within a sustainable and enduring system.
Our employment practices are underpinned by the following:
Our Bank will continue to operate and develop our procedures, training, programmes, management practices and policies that will enhance the working environment and conditions of its employees.
Guaranty Trust Bank (Rwanda) plc is a service driven organization. At the heart of our operations, is the desire to meet and surpass customer expectation. Our employees are continually enlightened on best practices on service delivery and issues management. Several initiatives such as the appointment of service champions who constantly raise the bar of services offered to customers and a short messaging service line for customers who are unhappy about any of ours services were launched to ensure prompt and exceptional customer service delivery.
As an organization, we work hard to ensure that our customers are educated and informed about our products and services. Customer education is carried out through various channels including e-mail messages; telephone SMS, flyers, newspaper publications, radio broadcasts, TV infomercials as well as through the use of social media tools.
We also innovate to provide a better service, including fast track banking, scam alert campaigns and effective money security measures. We implemented a more robust, centralized complaint management system to ensure that customer issues are logged, tracked, and addressed in a timely and effective manner.
A monthly internal stakeholder meeting monitors service delivery through ideas sharing and problem solving. We also operate a Quality Management System (QMS) that is certified in line with the NIS ISO 9001:2008 requirements. The QMS is designed to control, monitor and improve the Bank's processes, ensuring that our employees, outsourced agents or service providers use documented guidelines, standard of operating procedures; service level agreements and we are consistent in our response to statutory laws and policies.
Our Bank is committed to continually improve its service delivery and customer issues management.
Guaranty Trust Bank is committed to complying with the provisions of all the relevant Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism regulations. We will:
Our Bank is also committed to operating a working environment that encourages all employees to voluntarily provide information in line with the requirements of the AML/CFT Framework, whilst guaranteeing protection of their identities where necessary.
Our project finance activities operate under an environmental and social management policy that has been approved by the International Finance Corporation. As a first-class financial services provider with an obligation to comply with international best practices, we are committed to the best international performance standards and applicable national environmental and social regulations.
The Guaranty Trust Bank Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) serves as a tool to improve environmental and social performance of the Bank and its customers. It also provides a systematic way of managing the Bank’s sustainability operations in a progressive manner.
We intend to create an ESMS policy to govern all other aspects of our day to day operations and business services. This will address key environmental impacts such as waste management, energy use, carbon emissions and water use.
Guaranty Trust Bank understands the duty and responsibility to respect, protect and uphold the rights of its employees and stakeholders. Our Bank takes seriously these obligations and has taken steps to incorporate the under-listed into its business operations and relationships:
Guaranty Trust Bank defines and operates an equal opportunity policy, relating to gender, race, religion and disability issues. Our workforce is 45% female and 55% male with gender equality on opportunities and career growth.
Guaranty Trust Bank operates a robust and open internal feedback system. Employees can provide feedback or comments via the Whistle Blower and ‘HR & You’ email and portals available through the Bank’s Intranet. We also have an open door policy which allows for issues to be escalated anonymously along designated reporting lines.
Our Bank will continue to promote the preservation of human rights in its operations as we continue to recruit qualified persons irrespective of race, gender and disability. We will also continue to support our “open door” culture which promotes the freedom of expression amongst staff.
At Guaranty Trust Bank, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is fully integrated into our business model as strategy and provisions are made and approved by Management annually as with any other business area of the Bank.
Embedded in the Bank’s core values is a nurturing social conscience that compels us to seek the common good within the communities in which we operate. Proud to promote best practices in some of the least-developed parts of the world, we have sought to encourage community growth and social development on a sustainable basis.
Recognising the broad spectrum of economic and social needs prevalent in Nigeria and within the sub-region, our CSR agenda is equally comprehensive, encompassing:
Intrinsically, our CSR is aimed at improving the quality of life and promoting a sustainable environment in our host communities. Specifically, our programmes are designed to;
Our programmes and projects are products of interaction with and needs assessment by relevant stakeholder groups in our host communities. Some of our major programmes include Adopt-a-School programme, Orange Ribbon Initiative and the GTBank Football Tournaments.
“Social Responsibility is a civic contribution not an obligation. Seek to make things better. Contribute to Society”. Orange Rule No. 7
Community Development
The communities where we work are the reasons why we exist; Our role is to make them stronger.
Education
We believe that quality education increases opportunities to access a better life.
Environment
From how we conduct our business to the role we play in communities, we are committed to protecting the environment and tackling climate change.
Art
We see in the Arts, the opportunity to inspire and empower members of our communities and to also foster cultural exchanges that break down societal barriers and build global relationships.