Commercial International Bank (CIB) has been invited to participate in the 3rd World Conference on the Revitalization of the Mediterranean Diet, which took place in Bari, Italy.
The conference was held under the patronage of Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ministry of Ecological Transition, and Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Policies.
During the conference, Dalia Abdel Kader, the CIB’s Chief Sustainability Officer, discussed the role of sustainable finance in driving sustainable food systems. She based her argument on the need to develop new financial models that testify to the business case of lending to small farmers for sustainable production and, in turn, sustainable food. The establishment of this business case would attract huge investments in global markets, producing enough food to feed the world’s population. The discussion was backed by the CIB’s solid experience in lending to small farmers, where the Bank acts as an Apex Bank managing the Ministry of Agriculture’s Development Fund, the programme engages more than 14 Egyptian banks, who collectively disbursed loans to over 375K beneficiaries, including farmers and co-operatives.
