Zenith Bank

Zenith Bank publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

No leading practices were identified for Zenith Bank in the respecting planetary boundaries measurement area.

Zenith Bank discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. The financial institution has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals. Stakeholders and communities to raise complaints or concerns regarding human rights or bribery and corruption. It also discloses a global tax strategy and that an executive-level individual has responsibility for this strategy.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, Zenith Bank has an opportunity to assign responsibility for sustainability to the group’s highest governing body and link the remuneration of its executive and management teams to sustainability performance criteria. Furthermore, women are underrepresented on the board of directors. The bank also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. It could also disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. There is no evidence that Zenith Bank discloses the actions taken to address any pay gaps. It has an opportunity to describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients.

Zenith Bank has an opportunity to disclose a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050. The financial institution has an opportunity to disclose the key sectors and companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, specifically on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. The Bank could disclose its financing activities devoted to climate solutions. Regarding nature and biodiversity, no evidence was found that the financial institution is committed to minimising its negative impacts or financing regenerative solutions.

There is no evidence that Zenith Bank has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights laid out in the UN Guiding Principles and the ILO declaration on fundamental rights at work. Therefore, it has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. The financial institution discloses the ages of its employees and top management but has an opportunity to disclose this information for each employee category. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, Zenith Bank could disclose the amount of finance directed towards, for example, women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or low-income developing countries.