NCB wins AMCHAM Award for CSR initiatives

National Commercial Bank (NCB) last week received the 2015 AMCHAM Business & Civic Leadership Award for Excellence in the Corporate Social Responsibility Large Organisation category at the organisation's Business and Civic Leadership Awards held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

On hand to receive the award were NCB's Group Managing Director Patrick Hylton; Nadeen Matthews, CEO, NCB Foundation and Senior AGM Group Strategy, Marketing & Communications.

They were joined by fellow executives, NCB Foundation's directors, and other key partners and NCB scholars.

NCB copped the award for work undertaken by the bank and its foundation since 2003, in the areas of education, youth leadership, entrepreneurship, community development and sports, which combined has impacted more than 160,000 lives directly, at a cost in excess of $1 billion.

NCB, in its submission under the corporate social responsibility category, outlined the various objectives of several programmes and the difference they are making.

These included the establishment of a unit dedicated to serving the needs of SMEs and the Nation Builder Awards initiative designed to publicly recognise and reward SMEs for their notable business performance and community development. Winners of the bank's Nation Builder Awards are supported with a combination of cash, technical training and capacity building, scholarships or marketing support worth more than $1.5 million.

With entrepreneurship a key focus, the bank also invested J$13 million to develop Women Business Owners by providing training opportunities that contributed to growth and sustainability of women-owned small-and-medium-size businesses.

NCB also partnered with the Mona School of Business & Management at the University of the West Indies for the funding of applied business research through an arrangement that formally began in February 2015.

Under this agreement, the financial institution has the opportunity to be a key driver of research with a concentration on corporate renewal and transformation.

"The objective of this association is to generate breakthrough innovations and foster critical thinking that are able to guide not only NCB, but all Jamaican and Caribbean firms on strategic approaches to building their dynamic capabilities and capacity for sustainable profitable growth in the current environment," Hylton explained.

Meanwhile, the NCB Foundation (which just passed the J$1-billion mark) continues to lead the bank's CSR through interrelationships focused on the growth of our nation's people. In continuation of its mandate the Foundation seeks to undertake development in the areas of Education (Scholarships and Grants, Adopt-a-School), Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship, Community Development and Sports (Donations to Track clubs).

Another factor which contributed to NCB's receipt of the Excellence Award was the bank's support of Crime Stop since 1989. Crime Stop is a Cause Marketing Programme focused on the fight against crime in Jamaica, through forging a tripartite partnership that sees the communities, police and media working in tandem.

This synergy also provides a platform for the public to share information about illicit acts, while ensuring complete anonymity.