Lungisa Fuzile, Standard Bank South Africa's chief executive, maintains that the bank has a strong commitment to renewable energy, financing R5 in renewable energy for every R1 lent to non-renewable power in 2022.

At least one bank is making a dent in South Africa's R1-trillion renewable energy funding opportunity, although it remains a lead financial arranger for the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline.

Shareholder activist group Just Share says the pipeline will pump enough oil to send up to 34.3mt of carbon dioxide - about seven times the emissions of Uganda and Tanzania combined - into the atmosphere each year.

At a media briefing on Tuesday, Standard Bank South Africa claimed it was one of the largest investors in green energy, anticipating a total book size of more than R3-billion in solar installation finance by the end of this year.

The R3bn figure includes money that will be disbursed as part of the government's energy bounce-back loan scheme which went live on Standard Bank's books on 20 September.

Lungisa Fuzile, Standard Bank South Africa's chief executive, says although it's still early days, about R1-million has already been disbursed via the bounce-back loan scheme.

"There is increasing interest as more people come to know about it, because currently, most are using personal loans or equity in their home loans to finance their solar installations," he says.

The bank says it...