The Bank of Industry (BOI), and the French Development Agency (AFD), have signed a grant agreement of €2.5 million, delegated by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), to further strengthen their partnership to fight climate change in Nigeria.
The Country Director, AFD, Nigeria, Xavier Muron, and Managing Director of BOI, Olukayode Pitan, were hosted by the Ambassador of France in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Emmanuelle Blatmann, to fight climate change in Nigeria.
A statement yesterday by the Project Manager at AFD, Ms Aïssatou Kumagangue, said as France has committed over €1.5 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) since 2019, it was only natural that the meeting was held at the French Embassy.
It stated that on August 23, 2022, BOI and AFD signed a €100 million credit-line for the expansion of green finance in Nigeria.
This was approved under AFD’s Transforming Financial Systems for Climate (TFSC) Programme with the GCF, a $650 million programme developed in 17 countries for 100% climate investment projects.
The TFSC programme focuses on financing investments that contribute to climate change mitigation, specifically projects focused on renewable energy, low carbon and efficient energy generation, climate smart agriculture technologies, clean urban transportation and others.
Given the serious threat that climate change poses to equitable and sustainable development in Nigeria, it is critical for BOI to take the lead in mobilising capital for green and sustainable investment.
BOI and AFD understand the importance of mainstreaming Climate Finance within the Bank’s strategy and operations, for which the grant agreement set up a technical assistance scheme.
The objective is to build BOI’s capacity, thereby providing tools for effective identification and development of eligible bankable climate-related projects as well as improving the readiness of the bank’s customers to implement green practices in their operations.
In this context, the implementation of the Environment and Social Governance (ESG) framework provided for in the credit agreement will be an important part of the technical assistant mandate.
“Given the serious threat that climate change poses to equitable and sustainable development in Nigeria, it is critical for BOI to take the lead in mobilising capital for green and sustainable investment.
In addition to the line of credit, the €2.5 million technical assistance fund would support capacity building for BOI and its customers, thereby enabling the scaling of current efforts by BOI towards climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Pitan said the fund will contribute significantly to reducing Nigeria’s carbon footprint, with specific reference to gender equality.
He said it would also support BOI in the development and implementation of professional gender equality and gender lens investing policies. (NAN)
