The Bank of Industry (BOI) and French Development Agency (AFD) have signed an agreement on a 2.5 million Euros Green Climate Fund (GCF) in furtherance of their partnership on climate change in Nigeria. A statement by Ms Aïssatou Kumagangue, Project Manager at AFD, said this in Abuja. She said that Xavier Muron, the Country Director of AFD in Nigeria, and Olukayode Pitan, the Managing Director of BOI, met under the patronage of Emmanuelle Blatmann, the Ambassador of France in Nigeria and ECOWAS to fight climate change in Nigeria.
According to the statement, since France has committed more than 1.5 billion Euros to the Green Climate Fund since 2019, it is only natural that the meeting was held at the French Embassy. It said that on Aug. 23, 2022, BOI and AFD had signed a 100 million Euro 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 Green Climate Fund (GCF), a US$ 650 million programme developed in 17 countries for 100 per cent 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.
The statement said the BOI and AFD understood the importance of mainstreaming Climate Finance within BOI’s strategy and operations. “Therefore, the grant agreement set up a technical assistance scheme for BOI. The objective is to build the capacity of BOI, 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 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 Euros 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”. Mr Olukayode Pitan, the Managing Director of BOI, was quoted as saying that the credit line would 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.
