Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC has held the first Supplier Sustainability Forum in Accra.
The forum brought together the bank’s suppliers, business banking clients, NGOs and representatives from the Association of Physically Challenged and Albinism to engage them on its sustainability agenda and how the bank demonstrates diversity and inclusion in its businesses.
In a release issued by the bank on June 13, it said the bank shared plans for improving the lives of one billion people and their communities by unleashing the full potential of women and small businesses in its core markets.
This, it said, included providing equitable access to financial support for women and small business by accelerating the provision of quality financial services to women, purposefully connecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to international markets and building partnerships to expand the reach and scale of financial services.
The release said the purpose of the forum was to share the bank’s plan for supplier diversity.
“Working with more diverse suppliers drives greater economic participation and positive social and community impacts. However, small companies do not always have the same opportunities to pitch for work with large organisations.
The bank hopes to change this by ensuring the provision of equal access to diverse suppliers in the procurement processes by partnering with organisations that provide guidance on best practice and help connect with more diverse suppliers as well as providing support on how to meet the requirements,” it said.
The Supply Chain Management’s Head of Sustainability and Training of the bank, Susan Tew, took participants through the bank’s Supplier D&I standards, focusing on the five pillars, namely the Commitment to Inclusion of Diverse Suppliers in the Procurement Process, Alignment to Suppliers D&I Standards and Compliance, Legislation, Regulation or Local Laws, Commitment to Continuous Improvement of Supplier D&I Practices, Supplier Support and Development and Commitment to Measurement and Sharing of Progress.
The Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing, Asiedua Addae, said the bank was committed to lifting participation through supplier diversity and inclusion.
“In collaboration with our NGO partners and through our Futuremakers programmes, we provide education and support to SMEs and female businesses, helping them to acquire the capabilities to succeed,” he said.
“To ensure that our suppliers impart their various partners, there was knowledge sharing and communication of successes by the participants who attended the forum. The data gathered at the forum will be used in the bank’s vendor management discussions to drive improvement,” the release said.
