Bank of Industry (BOI) has said that plans are in place to contribute about 27 per cent of the renewable power generation in Africa by year 2030. Managing Director of BOI, Dr. Olasupo Olusi said this at the AADFI-AFFIAP CEO Forum. He said as Nigeria’s leading Development Financing Institute (DFI), “one of the primary drivers of BoI’s developmental strategy is to accelerate Nigeria’s development through supporting environmentally-friendly and sustainable projects across the key sectors of the economy. He further said “we are very active in resourcing climate-friendly funds, including the recent credit line of 100 million Euros secured from the French Development Agency (AFD) for the expansion of green finance in Nigeria.
“The bank is also currently implementing an on-lending financing scheme through local financial institutions to support customers interested in adopting clean energy solutions. We will continue to seek funding partners to complement our climate change agenda”. He also said “we must make Stronger Climate Commitments, to outpace the far-reaching effects of climate change, we as DFIs need to accelerate our own progress and increase our climate ambition. We need to hold ourselves accountable to commitments that are backed up with action. At BoI, we are signatories to the World’s foremost sustainability frameworks and we are committed to mobilising finance for sustainable development. Our project portfolio reflects a significant investment in renewable energy projects as we seek to contribute to the continental ambition of 27% of renewable power generation by 2030”.
Olusi said that “to build a climate-resilient economy in developing countries, DFIs must continue to harness their convening power of partnerships and channel public and private investments toward clean and sustainable activities. We must be better coordinated in harmonising our various climate initiatives to ensure significant impact and achievement of economies of scale. BOI has worked with our partners to raise over $5 billion from several international financial institutions in the last five years. We intend to leverage our extensive partnership to raise the resources required for building a climate-smart Nigeria” he stated.