The support is in line with the bank’s corporate responsibility & sustainability (CR&S) agenda which has the environment as one of its pillars.

Its aim is to help the communities improve their resilience against extreme weather events and changing weather patterns.

Green Ghana Day

Since 2021, June 9 each year has been set aside for the Green Ghana Day Project with a clarion call for a nationwide tree-planting exercise.

This year’s event took place last Friday and targeted  having 10 million trees planted across the country.

Out of the 10 million, six million of the trees are expected to be planted in the forest reserve and four million out of forest reserve.

The day was instituted by the government in 2021 under the auspices of the MLNR as part of an afforestation agenda to restore the lost forest cover of the country.

It is also aimed at speedily retrieving and revamping degraded lands and restore the country’s lost green environment.

Shared responsibility

Leading a team to present the cheque, the Managing Director of the FBNBank,  Victor Yaw Asante, said the bank was encouraged to support the government’s initiative to restore the environment because that was a collective responsibility.

“Conserving the environment is a responsibility that must be headed by all to secure a sustainable future for Ghana.

“To that we remain focused on putting our customers and communities first by also investing in initiatives that will be of benefit though it may have no direct bearing on our relationship.” 

Sustain project, nurture trees

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the MLNR, a Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio, expressed his gratitude to the FBNBank for the gesture as the cost of the project was not one that government alone could shoulder.

He commended the bank for also demonstrating leadership in supporting government’s effort in the Green Ghana campaign.

The deputy minister said it was not enough for trees to be planted without monitoring if they survived or not and thus encouraged individuals and corporate bodies that planted in the previous years, to ensure that they nurtured their plants to maturity to increase the survival rate.

That, he said, was the best way to sustain the project and make it successful.

Tree planting

After the presentation ceremony, officials of the bank joined members of the Rotary District 9102 to plant trees at Pantang Hospital in the La Nkwatanang Municipality in the Greater Accra Region.

Mr Asante, who is the Governor of Rotary District 9102, said protecting the environment was the foundation for sustaining the planet, community and economy, so by supporting the protection of the environment, Rotary was ensuring a sustainable future for this and the next generation.

“Our environment supports and houses our ecosystems, allowing them to grow and thrive.

If we fail to protect our environment, we will put the lives of humans, animals and plants at risk,” he added.  

He encouraged the hospital to protect the new trees and also challenged everyone to plant and nurture trees at home or anywhere near them because it had the potential of contributing significantly to the country’s efforts to mitigate climate change.