Who is Emvert for institutions for?
Any organisation that needs to see ESG progress across many businesses at once: development institutions and development partners running business programmes, investors and lenders, and government agencies overseeing compliance. Each sees the businesses connected to it, and nothing else.
- Development institutions and development partners. If you run a programme that helps businesses manage ESG, you can track each one's progress and report on the programme as a whole, across every country it covers.
- Investors and lenders. Venture capital firms, private equity funds, banks and other investors that need ESG and emissions data from the companies they back can see the summary figures those companies record in Emvert, instead of chasing spreadsheets.
- Regulators and government agencies. If you oversee businesses in a region, a sector or a whole country, you can see how far they have got towards compliance.
What can an institution see?
Each connected business's status on three things, its readiness assessment, its carbon accounting and its ESG reporting, plus summary figures and reports. Across the portfolio, you see the totals: how many businesses are ready, where the common gaps are, which businesses need more support or training, and the portfolio's combined emissions.
| The institution sees | Stays with the business | |
|---|---|---|
| Readiness | Each business's readiness status, and the share of the portfolio that is ready on governance and other areas | The individual answers and documents behind the score |
| Carbon accounting | Summary emissions figures for each business and for the portfolio | The calculations, emission factors and source documents |
| ESG reporting | Reporting status, the most common gaps across the portfolio, and reports | The working draft and its evidence |
You can group and categorise portfolio companies in whatever way suits your programme or fund, including by country. The calculations and evidence behind every figure are reviewed by the business's assurance provider, not by the institution. Emvert's tools for assurance providers are in development.
How do businesses and institutions connect?
By invitation, in either direction. An institution can invite a business to connect, or a business can invite an institution.
Every business keeps its own Emvert account and its own data. Connecting to an institution gives that institution the summary view above, not access to the account itself. A business can be part of a development programme, borrow from a bank and still keep its working files to itself.
How does it work for a development programme?
A programme officer sees every business in the portfolio in one place: who has completed the readiness assessment, who is measuring emissions, who is reporting, and who is stuck. That turns programme management from chasing updates into seeing them.
The officer can see what each business lacks and where more training would help, and plan support around it. At programme level, the institution can report results in figures, for example the share of portfolio companies that are ready on governance, or the combined emissions of the businesses it supports.
Why does building readiness early matter for smaller businesses?
Because the deadlines for smaller businesses are coming, and they differ by country. In Kenya, SMEs report under IFRS S1 and S2 from 2029; in Nigeria, from 2030; and in Ghana, smaller companies below the thresholds set by ICAG are not required to report but are encouraged to.
A programme that builds readiness now gets its businesses there before their deadline, and can show that it did. Many smaller businesses will also be asked for emissions data by larger customers, lenders and buyers long before their own reporting date arrives. See ESG reporting requirements in Africa for each country's rules.
How does it help investors and lenders with financed emissions?
It gives investors and lenders the emissions figures their portfolio companies actually record, instead of estimates. Financed emissions, the emissions of the companies an investor or lender funds, are often a financial institution's largest, and IFRS S2 asks banks, insurers and asset managers to disclose them.
The method most financial institutions use is PCAF, which the GHG Protocol confirms conforms with its standard for investment emissions. Where a portfolio company supplies no figures, the investor or lender has to estimate. Where the company records its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in Emvert, the institution sees those figures, while the calculations and evidence stay in the company's account.
Central banks across Africa are also bringing sustainability into supervision. The National Bank of Rwanda, for example, has issued guidelines phasing in sustainability-related disclosures for the financial institutions it supervises from 2025. A portfolio view built on recorded figures helps a lender meet expectations like these.
How can regulators and government agencies use it?
To see how far the businesses they oversee have got towards compliance, across a region, a sector or the whole country. The view shows readiness, carbon accounting and reporting status for connected businesses, and the gaps that are most common.
That helps an agency target guidance and training where it is needed, instead of at every business at once. As with every institution, the agency sees summaries and reports, not each business's working files.
What does a business get from connecting?
Its own full Emvert account: the readiness assessment, carbon accounting and ESG reporting, with evidence attached to every figure. Connecting to a programme, a lender or an agency shares a summary; it does not hand over the account.
For many businesses, joining through an institution is the way in. The institution provides the structure and support, and the business builds the records it will need when its own reporting date arrives.
How do you start with Emvert for institutions?
Talk to us. We will show you the portfolio view with example businesses and walk through how your programme, fund or lending book would connect, across whichever African countries your portfolio covers.
Every conversation ends with a written proposal in your local currency, priced on the number of users and the modules you need. For the businesses in your portfolio, the readiness assessment is a good place to start.