The fight against climate change in Nigeria received a boost on Tuesday as the Bank of Industry (BoI) signed an agreement worth £100 million with the French Development Agency (AfD) for the expansion of green finance in Nigeria.
The 10-year facility is priced at 2.47 per cent per annum with a four-year moratorium by mixing various concessional resources.
Managing Director, BoI, Olukayode Pitan, disclosed this at the signing ceremony in Lagos.
According to him, the transaction was approved by AFD under its Transforming Financial Systems for Climate (TFSC) Programme with the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
Pitan said TFSC was a $650 million programme developed in 17 countries for 100 per cent climate investments projects.
He pledged that the credit facility would focus on financing investments that contributed to climate change mitigation or adaptation.
This, he explained, would be specifically projects focused on renewable energy, low carbon and efficient energy generation, climate smart agriculture technologies, clean urban transportation and others.
Country director of AFD, Mr Xavier Muron, said studies had shown that climate change will cause Nigeria about $400 billions, which is between 6 per cent to 13 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He added that this new credit line was a key milestone towards the achievement of the Paris Agreement and was timely since Nigeria looked forward to launching its Energy Transition Plan.
Muron said the main objective of the partnership was to spur the country’s financing systems to focus more on climate aspect and the investment needs to fight the adverse impact of climate change.
He added that the financing package would also include a £2.5 million grant dedicated to a technical assistance programme aimed at mainstreaming climate finance within BoI’s strategy and operations.
