Exclusive interview with Deerosh Maharaj, Executive Head for Energy, Infrastructure & Mining, Standard Bank, a gold sponsor at Africa’s Green Economy Summit, taking place in Cape Town from 19–20 February 2025.
Q: Thank you for joining us. Let’s start with some background on you and your role at Standard Bank.
I am Deerosh Maharaj. I’ve worked with Standard Bank for the past 12 years across various roles. Currently, I lead three sector teams as the Head of Energy Infrastructure & Mining.
Q: What is Standard Bank’s vision regarding its involvement in the green economy and future sustainability on the continent?
The developing and evolving landscape and its implications for African countries can be significant if our economies are not ready for this change. As Standard Bank, the slogan that grounds us in all our activities is, “Africa is our home, we drive her growth.”
Our vision as a bank is therefore to abide by, and support these commitments made as a continent. That refers to our own operations, and how we support our clients. A key objective of our vision is to establish ourselves as a key enabler to our clients who are going through green transitions.
Q: What in your view are the main challenges and then also the opportunities?
There are several challenges and from these challenges stem several opportunities. Key challenges pertain to where Africa is in its economic life cycle. African economies are still developing and growing economies, and therefore the transitions that are required for economies in this stage of their life cycle to adopt, can hamper growth in the short term.
This does, however, create the opportunity to plan smartly and leapfrog ahead of other nations, making this continent an attractive investment environment to the world.
Q: Any particular projects that the bank is involved in that you are particularly excited about?
The bank has been supporting clients with countless exciting projects in the sustainability arena. Our Sustainable Finance teams support large corporates execute on their sustainability master plans. In Business and Commercial Banking, our focus is very specific to help Small to Medium Enterprises with the essential support required to ensure that their products and services are not cornered out of the market due to them not being green. Energy, Waste and Water solutions are at the forefront of what we drive with our SME clients.
Q: You are gold sponsors for Africa’s Green Economy Summit (AGES). What made you decide to partner with this event? What are your expectations?
AGES has become a landmark event that brings all like-minded leaders together and over the years, it has become the main event where the latest African green innovations are brought to stage. Currently, we find our aspirations for Africa well aligned, and we have hence pledged our support to sponsor this year.
Q: What will be your main message at the event?
The developments globally towards an economy that operates with the essential underpins of Social, Environmental and Economic considerations can be tricky to navigate. Standard Bank is focused on ensuring that we partner with our clients for growth and resilience. So, if these are the challenges or topics that interest you as a business, reach out to us and we can walk this journey together.
Q: Anything you would like to add?
Well done to the organisers! I see that you have managed to attract R4bn in projects to be pitched in this year’s conference. All of us attending from Standard Bank are very excited to engage with as many of these project owners as possible.
www.linkedin.com/in/deerosh-maharaj-63211b7?originalSubdomain=za
www.standardbank.com/sbg/standard-bank-group
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