Madam Adwoa Wiafe, Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer of MTN Ghana, has urged small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to integrate sustainability into their business strategies as a way of improving access to funding, attracting investors and building customer loyalty.
She said sustainability should not be viewed by SMEs merely as a corporate responsibility requirement, but as a business strategy capable of improving competitiveness, strengthening resilience and opening access to new sources of capital.
Madam Wiafe said international investors and development finance institutions were increasingly interested in businesses that could demonstrate responsible environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices alongside strong financial performance.
“For us, it is about shared value. Sustainability requires businesses to look beyond just the commercial objective and consider the impact they have on people, communities and the environment,” she said.
She was speaking in Accra on the growing importance of sustainability to SMEs and how businesses could position themselves to benefit from the changing expectations of investors, financiers and consumers.
Madam Wiafe said SMEs that could demonstrate responsible use of resources, good governance, social impact and environmental responsibility would be better positioned to respond to the requirements of investors and customers seeking more transparent and responsible businesses.
She said sustainability could also help businesses reduce operational costs through measures such as efficient energy use, waste reduction and better resource management, while strengthening their ability to withstand economic and environmental shocks.
The comments come at a time Ghana’s financial sector is placing greater emphasis on sustainable finance and ESG considerations.
The Bank of Ghana’s Sustainable Finance Roadmap seeks to integrate climate risk management and ESG standards across the financial sector and help channel capital towards sustainable investments.
Madam Wiafe said SMEs therefore needed to begin documenting their sustainability practices and impacts instead of waiting until investors or financiers formally demanded such information.
She explained that customers were also becoming more interested in how products were produced, the conditions under which workers operated and the environmental and social impact of businesses.
“Consumers are asking more questions about where products come from, how they are produced and what impact businesses are having on society and the environment,” she said.
She urged SMEs to see sustainability reporting as an opportunity to demonstrate credibility and build trust with their stakeholders.
On whether sustainability reporting should become mandatory for SMEs, Madam Wiafe said the conversation needed to take into account the different capacities of businesses.
She said while greater disclosure could improve transparency and make SMEs more visible to investors and other stakeholders, any reporting requirements should be practical and proportionate to the size and capacity of the businesses involved.
A study on sustainability performance reporting among 183 Ghanaian SMEs found that only 38.3 percent engaged in such reporting, with financial constraints, lack of expertise, limited awareness and the absence of regulatory requirements identified among the barriers.
Madam Wiafe said SMEs would therefore require education, technical support and simple reporting tools if sustainability reporting was to become a broader business practice.
She said the objective should be to help smaller businesses generate useful information that could strengthen their relationships with financiers, investors, customers and other stakeholders without imposing reporting systems that could become an additional burden.
She said sustainability should ultimately be embedded in the day-to-day operations of SMEs rather than treated as a separate activity undertaken only for reporting purposes.
Madam Wiafe said SMEs formed an important part of the sustainability agenda because of their contribution to employment, innovation and economic activity, adding that helping them adopt sustainable business practices would have broader implications for Ghana’s economic development.
