| {"doc_id": "018a1f49b220941ccafd3a7cc42fdadb", "text": "CENTRAL BANK OF KENYA\nLAUNCH OF NSE LISTING RULES INCORPORATING LISTING\nREQUIREMENTS FOR GREEN BONDS\nWednesday, February 20 2019\nKeynote Address by\nDr. Patrick Njoroge, Governor, Central Bank of Kenya\n659 words\nGood morning!\nFirst, I want to thank Geoffrey Odundo for getting me out of the office on this\nfine Wednesday morning. I had a choice between attending a meeting in my\noffice – which overlooks a car park, by the way – and joining you, not just for\nbreakfast, but to breathe some fresh air. This was a good choice of hotel, seeing\nas it is located in Central Park, which partly serves as a lung for this busy city.\nWhen I was appointed to this position, one of the things I sought was regular\nrespite from the pressures of the job. I have told many of you the story before,\nof how Karura Forest and my Saturday morning runs there help clear my head.\nSome of you may have joined me on these runs.\nI'm not just re-telling this story to prove my running credentials. Karura's\nexistence, and the dogged work put in by the late Professor Wangari Maathai,\nbrought home to Kenyans the value of protecting the environment. I need not\nremind you that she was also instrumental, three decades ago, in protecting\nUhuru Park just next door, and keeping it safe for the people of Nairobi to use.\nThis was years before climate change and environmental protection became\nbuzzwords.\n1\n\nKenya was a leader in proving the fact that the environment matters. We have\nbeen leaders in establishing the principle that we have only borrowed this planet\nfrom our children. So we now seek to lead the world in proving that being green\npays – that we can take the great strengths of the financial industry and its\ninvestment savvy and apply these to the task of protecting the earth and all who\nlive in it.\nKenya, therefore, is one of the pioneers in establishing the green bond market.\nThere is appetite for investing in Africa, in recognition that, of all the\ninvestment bets you can make, this is the one that is sure to come up trumps.\nThere is also appetite, as I have mentioned, to use your investment muscle to do\ngood – to help defend the planet against the ravages of climate change and\nenvironmental damage. These two impulses come neatly together when we seek\nto make Nairobi the global hub for green finance.\nWhat must we do, then? What is my challenge to you? This – what we are doing\nhere – is a vital component. We must develop clear guidelines on green finance.\nThe temptation would be to be loose with definition and regulation, in order to\nensure that Nairobi is the entrepôt in this new, and essential, field of finance.\nHowever, the entrepôt model can have its drawbacks. We must remember that\nsometimes these may bring the detritus of trade, much as they could bring in\nhigh quality commerce. We cannot accept, or afford, to give cover to those who\nonly wish to burnish their greenwashing credentials.\nThus, we must look at the highest quality of green bond issuance. The\nguidelines that we are launching today should be guided by the Green Bond\nPrinciples, which outline clearly how projects are selected, and how proceeds\nare managed and used; as well as which information is disclosed to investors\nand how. We must also position Nairobi to be a global centre for the green\nassessment of bonds. Issues such as verification, consultant review and ratings\n2\n\ncan be refined here, and we should develop and attract global experts in these\nfields.\nIt is my hope that when we look back a decade or two hence, we will recall this\nmorning fondly, saying to each other that 'we were there', when we set Nairobi\non the path to being a capital of green bonds and green finance. And,\nincidentally, finding me will be fairly easy. I will be the retired old man reading\na book under a tree in Uhuru Park!\nThank you for your attention.\n3", "source": "CBK", "stratum": "cb_requests", "fetch_date": "2026-04-26", "url": "https://www.centralbank.go.ke/uploads/speeches/1595912569_Remarks by the Governor - Green Bonds Listing Rules.pdf"} |