By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
DEVELOMENT Bank of Zambia (DBZ) has invested a total of K826 million in environmental friendly projects as at June 30, this year.
DBZ managing director Jacob Lushinga said the portfolio was made up of 86 projects, of which 56 had been completed and operational while 30 were still under implementation.
Mr Lushinga said this at the on going 91st Agriculture and Commercial Show (ACS)  being held under the theme: “Promoting a Green Economy”.
“The exposure to completed projects stood at K436 million and projects under implementation stood at K270 million.
“In terms of sector distribution, the bank’s investment in the manufacturing sector was leading at 19 per cent, followed by tourism and hospitality sectors at 17 per cent and then financial services at 15 per cent,” Mr Lushinga said.
He said other sectors included construction and agriculture at 11 per cent, agro-processing at 12 per cent, other services at nine per cent, energy at four per cent, and education at one per cent.
Mr Lushinga said this year’s ACS theme was critical to all Zambians and must be taken seriously if the country was to achieve sustainable social economic development, characterised by significantly reduced environmental risks.
He said it was critical because the theme focuses on providing better quality of life for all Zambians without harming the environmental and the social set up of the  communities.
“In other words, the concept focuses on advancing sustainable economic, environmental and social development, unlike the earlier model of development that focused more on increasing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) without taking care of its side effects,” he said.
Mr Lushinga explained that despite the earlier model of development increasing income for various countries in the world, including Zambia, its side effects such as environmental degradation or the creation of gender related poverty proved to be costly  resulting in most of the earnings being diverted to resolving the consequences of the model.
DBZ  has been in the forefront of promoting green economy because of the benefits such as improved quality of life and less pollution to the environment an economy offers.
It is with that regard that the bank developed its environmental policy and guidelines to provide necessary conditions for managing the overall risks associated with the execution of the bank’s portfolio.
DBZ realised that the environmental impacts could expose the borrowers and the bank to diverse type of risks, depending on the nature, scale and scope of these impacts.
Therefore, addressing these impacts and their associated risks is the fundamental objective of the environmental guidelines.
Mr Lushinga said it was clear that the bank had played quite a significant role in promoting green business models and projects.
“We would like to assure the public that we will continue providing finance to such projects as a way of promoting sustainable economic, environmental and social development,” he said.
Mr Lushinga  challenged other financial institutions to prioritise the financing for green business models and projects in Zambia.
“As financial institutions, we are well positioned to influence the model of development and we must do that before it is too late.
“I am aware of the fact that green business models and projects require substantial amounts of capital,” he said.
Mr Lushinga said it was in fact for this very reason that financial institutions can drive the green economy transformation through various funding instruments.