The Federal Government said it is ready to partner with any stakeholder to transform and economic develop the country.
Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed stated this at the closing session of the UK-Nigeria Climate Finance Accelerator workshop (CFA) held at the Zonal office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in Lagos at the weekend.
Ahmed, who was represented by Israel Igwe, Director, Economic Research and Policy, Ministry of Finance, noted the need for a coordinated green climate finance platform like the CFA in the economy.
According to her, the CFA programme is an innovative concept that would aid government’s developing approach of the “Ease of Doing Business”.
In a presentation, Chris Dodwell, Director, UK’s Climate Change and Clean Growth Ricardo Energy, called on stakeholders in the financial sector to collaborate towards financing developmental projects.
Dodwell said the CFA was an innovative international initiative supported by the UK Government and other international donors including Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico.
According to him, the aim is to accelerate the transformation of countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) into bankable projects to attract investment from the private sector.
The CFA, he continued, is a powerful example of creating a productive dialogue between financiers and policymakers, focused on scalable opportunities.
“The CFA progresses financing proposals for identified projects while ensuring Technical Assistance is provided to policymakers across ministries so that planing for delivery of the NDC is better aligned with available capital from local and international markets.
“For its actualisation and success, there is need for dialogue and collaboration among policymakers, governments, project developers and financial experts,” Dodwell said.
For Kyari Bukar, former Chairman, Nigeria Economy Summit Group (NESG) said the CFA programme was the kind of investment initiative the country currently needed to boost its investment portfolios for enhanced economic growth.
Bukar said the initiative would help to diversify investment portfolio of the banking sector and also transform the capital market.
“There is a driven finance community that is growing in the Nigerian economy, which needs to be identified and developed.
“With the much-valued support of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, since October 2018, we have been engaging with private sector companies interested in undertaking ambitious low carbon development projects.
“This is with a view to creating a mature pipeline of bankable projects contributing to Nigeria’s NDC and strengthening the climate finance capacities of public and private sector institutions,” he said.
Photo caption: From left; Director, Climate Change & Sustainability team at Ricardo Energy & Environment; Chris Dodwell; Representative of Finance Minster; Israel igwe; Acting Executive Commissioner Operations, SEC, Isyaku Tilde; Managing Consultant, Cerase Environmental Services Ltd; Mrs. Uzoamaka Egbuche and Head of prosperity, British Deputy high commission Lagos;Mr Guy Harrison at the Closing of UK Nigeria climate Finance accelerator conference in Lagos, weekend.
