In this video, we interviewed Fatou Sarr, Environment and Climate Officer, and Samuel Gyasi, Rural and Agric Supervisor at Advans Ghana. The organization is driving sustainable development through microcredit in Africa while integrating climate awareness into its operations to strengthen client resilience.

Ndeye Fatou Sarr, environment and Climate Officer Advans Ghana

What is Advans Ghana’s climate strategy?

Advans’ Climate Strategy was launched at the end of 2022, and the idea is to assess our internal impact to understand the impact of climate change on our portfolio and to enhance the resilience of our clients with appropriate products, appropriate services, and also appropriate knowledge.

What is your action plan and how does the Climate Fresk fit in?

So our climate risk analysis has shown that a very important share of our clients is already vulnerable to climate risk, including flooding and extreme heat, especially in some business activities and some specific locations.

And currently, we are working on our Client Awareness Raising Strategy, and the idea is to share with our vulnerable clients, some adaptation measures to enhance their ability to anticipate, to prepare for, and to respond to those climate events, those climate risks.

And it goes without saying that our local staff will play a great role in the process, but before they get engaged with the clients, it is important for them to know what the subject is about, to know what climate change is, and what is its impact.

Joining the Climate Fresk is here to make sure that all local Staff have a first level of understanding and awareness on the subject, so hat is why we are doing the Climate Fresk.

Samuel Gyasi, Rural and Agric supervisor Advans Ghana

Tell us your your experience with the Climate Fresk

Joining the Climate Fresk was a very great experience for me. First and foremost, with the way it was organized in terms of teams, we were put in teams or groups to do a teamwork, and it was a great time for us to share ideas.

It was also an eye-opener for us to hear of some new terms about the environment. And that was the fun aspect of it, because we couldn’t pronounce certain words, and after trying hard to pronounce them, we nicknamed ourselves, for example with “Coccolithophores”.

Personally, I knew that our environment is degrading, but I didn’t know the extent or the speed at which it was getting degraded or getting destroyed. But the Fresk session was really an eye-opener. It was a great experience I would say.

Through initiatives like the Climate Fresk, Advans Ghana equips staff and clients to adapt to environmental risks, showing how micro lending in Africa  and financing climate change adaptation can build resilient and sustainable communities.

Discover the first episode of our series “Climate Action Plan – Advans Ghana” and listen to Katherine Brown, Head of Clients and Impact at Advans International, explain our climate strategy.