Beyond ESG: Mauritius Commercial Bank on SROI and the future of African trade finance at ITFA 2026

So I mean, it's in- there's so many things there that we could unpack, and I think one of the things that we need to start focusing on straight away is the whole issue around compliance.

So the compliance framework, um, is, is changing in a way.

People are not as kind of interested and focused on ESG as they used to be, but they are really interested in how to make their, um, transactions as safe as possible, but how to measure some of the things that mean that they are making a difference.

So give us an example of how you've done that at MCB.

First of all, I will touch point on ESG, and E is for environment, S is for social, G is for governance.

But it, the, the foundation of ESG is a link to the sust- 17 sustainable development goals.

So it's very important for us to be able to identify this and to be able...

And that's where the issue comes in.

Because on the E perspective, there's so much that has been done, while from an S perspective there's not too much, and a G is not too much.

So when you are doing trade finance in developing countries, it's a different ballgame.

It's very different.

To have a data, to have information from E perspective, does it tick the box? So then this is where we are looking at, is it sustainable? Yes, we work with, um, partners.

We created frameworks.

These are the, for me, and, and that's where trade finance in, uh, which I looked at, is more difficult than s- financing term loans or CapEx, because this is where you're funding tangible goods, revolving.

Lot of discussions about first, do we consider it as sustainable? Uh, how do we report it? So there has been a lot of discussion around it, and this is where when I'm in Florence, Bakitwa, um, and elsewhere, we...

I'm like, "What should we do?" Where do we go? Uh, there...

I read all these nice framework, but how do we put it in practice? How do you really say this transaction is good? And then I get all these questions.

What if? The risk.

What do...

And, and that's where it's become difficult.

Yet, however, this being said, when we going to underground, we meeting this client, we see what they are doing, the impact they are having, it's...

For me, it's become like, how can all this discussion not able to see something very simple, the positive impact of this company having, and we are not able to showcase it.

We're not able to inspire others.

And that's for me, where it was important to, to, to voice out.

And then as an organizations where we partner with, uh, ITFA and work in this working group, and I was very happy to work with you because I've been, you know, [laughs] telling you these challenges and hurdles to be able to come up with something that is workable and practical and, and that can be used by everyone.

So I mean, it's in- there's so many things there that we could unpack, and I think one of the things that we need to start focusing on straight away is the whole issue around compliance.

So the compliance framework, um, is, is changing in a way.

People are not as kind of interested and focused on ESG as they used to be, but they are really interested in how to make their, um, transactions as safe as possible, but how to measure some of the things that mean that they are making a difference.

So give us an example of how you've done that at MCB.

First of all, I will touch point on ESG, and E is for environment, S is for social, G is for governance.

But it, the, the foundation of ESG is a link to the sust- 17 sustainable development goals.

So it's very important for us to be able to identify this and to be able...

And that's where the issue comes in.

Because on the E perspective, there's so much that has been done, while from an S perspective there's not too much, and a G is not too much.

So when you are doing trade finance in developing countries, it's a different ballgame.

It's very different.

To have a data, to have information from E perspective, does it tick the box? So then this is where we are looking at, is it sustainable? Yes, we work with, um, partners.

We created frameworks.

These are the, for me, and, and that's where trade finance in, uh, which I looked at, is more difficult than s- financing term loans or CapEx, because this is where you're funding tangible goods, revolving.

Lot of discussions about first, do we consider it as sustainable? Uh, how do we report it? So there has been a lot of discussion around it, and this is where when I'm in Florence, Bakitwa, um, and elsewhere, we...

I'm like, "What should we do?" Where do we go? Uh, there...

I read all these nice framework, but how do we put it in practice? How do you really say this transaction is good? And then I get all these questions.

What if? The risk.

What do...

And, and that's where it's become difficult.

Yet, however, this being said, when we going to underground, we meeting this client, we see what they are doing, the impact they are having, it's...

For me, it's become like, how can all this discussion not able to see something very simple, the positive impact of this company having, and we are not able to showcase it.

We're not able to inspire others.

And that's for me, where it was important to, to, to voice out.

And then as an organizations where we partner with, uh, ITFA and work in this working group, and I was very happy to work with you because I've been, you know, [laughs] telling you these challenges and hurdles to be able to come up with something that is workable and practical and, and that can be used by everyone.