OAB receives excellence award for social responsibility

MUSCAT: In recognition of its valuable service towards society, Oman Arab Bank (OAB) was recently bestowed with the Excellence Award in Social Responsibility during the Fourth Oman Forum for Partnership and Social Responsibility. The forum was held at Grand Millennium Muscat on December 16, under the patronage of Laila Ahmed Al Najjar, Minister of Social Development.

Highlighting the bank’s achievement on obtaining this award, Feras Al-Farsi, responsible for Sustainability at OAB, said, “We are extremely proud to receive this award as social responsibility is one of the most important focus areas of our strategy. Our sustainability strategy was designed to strengthen OAB’s social impact within its three main strategic pillars: community partnerships, environment and financial inclusion, to ensure we are making a valuable contribution to on the societal level, in parallel with business growth. In 2020, as a result of COVID-19, OAB focused its efforts to limit the financial and social impact of the pandemic through several special measures, for which we received a commendation at the fourth Oman Forum for Partnership and Social Responsibility.”

“Aside from financial support, we have continued to place innovation and education at the forefront of our strategy by launching the first Innovation Lab in the local banking sector. The lab will provide a professional platform for students, employees and companies operating in the field and is aimed at nurturing talents in the sphere of finance technology. In collaboration with several specialised companies, we have also launched a digital learning platform that offers a set of innovative and free workshops, targeted at youth and entrepreneurs, to enhance their technical skills. Last but not least, we renewed our partnership with the Environmental Society of Oman (ESO) and supported its virtual fundraiser event that managed to raise over OMR 100,000. During the event, we announced our long-term plan to reduce our carbon footprint, by measuring our environmental impact and finding more sustainable solutions,” he added.