Kuwait Finance House (KFH) signed a Memorandum of Understating with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

This agreement aims at establishing stronger alignments with the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs across KFH, where UNDP will provide technical support to facilitate investments that align with SDGs, through key instruments such as the (SDGs), impact standards, and Green Sukuk framework.

Speaking during the MoU signing ceremony held at the environment-friendly KFH-Auto showroom, Group Chief Strategy Officer at (KFH), Eng. Fahad Khaled Al-Mukhaizeem said: “KFH is moving forward in its green finance efforts by providing financial and technical advantages to initiatives that take into consideration environmental aspects and carbon emissions mitigation, and the technical partnerships came at a right moment, as we are keen on increasing the investment in green sukuk from the total financing portfolio and scaling up on linking our investment with SDGs”.

Al-Mukhaizeem added “KFH as the first Islamic bank established in Kuwait in 1977 and a world leading Islamic financial institution, has been abiding by sharia provisions and ethical value since its establishment. Furthermore, KFH launched “Keep it Green” program under which the bank executes several sustainability initiatives.  KFH made great strides in its sustainability strategy and is the first Bank in Kuwait to receive the Global Sustainability Assessment System GSAS – Gold Level Certificate.  We continue to apply transparency and environmental standards, social values, governance, financial inclusion, and women empowerment at KFH workforce as part of our integrated sustainability strategy”.

Now, with the technical partnerships with UNDP, KFH will further ramp up its efforts to embed sustainability and the SDGs in their investment portfolio through SDG impact investment and scaling up of green sukuk.

Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for the Arab States, Khalida Bouzar, highlighted that “Sustainability sits at the heart of this groundbreaking new partnership with KFH.  Together we will support countries in the region and across the globe to elevate climate action and help meet their commitments made under the Paris Agreement. The private sector has a key role to play in helping countries achieve the ambitious 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, so we look forward to working closely with KFH on bringing our partnership to fruition.”