Nigeria needs
$142 million dollars between now and 2030 to finance its Intended
Nationally Determined Commitment to reduce emission and low carbon for
improved environment.
A
statement from the Special Assistant to the Minister of Environment on
Communications, Ms Esther Agbarakwe, announced the development on
Saturday after a stakeholders’ consultation on pilot issuance of green
bonds in Nigeria.
Quoting
the Minister of Environment, Mrs Amina Mohammed, the statement said,
“The resource needed to finance the INDC is put at 142 million dollars
between now and 2030.
“The forum
is part of a continuing collaboration between the ministry of
environment and the ministry of finance to explore and develop a product
that can leverage and channel resources toward viable green projects.
“Also, it can contribute to the achievement of the nation’s development objectives.’’
She said
the issuance of green bonds, which had grown from 3 billion dollars per
annum since 2012 to an estimated 100 billion dollars for 2016, presented
a viable option.
The
special assistant also recalled that in May, the minister was presented
with a proposal by the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos on the issuance
of green bonds in Nigeria.
Agbarakwe
explained that thereafter, several consultations with the NSE, SEC and
UNEP had been held to critically look into the potential of financing
Nigeria’s INDC implementation through green bonds and other
multi-lateral funding mechanisms.
She said,
“Green bonds have been the subject of increasing government, investor
and media interest and expectations, driven by the prospect of matching
large low‑carbon investment requirements with the trillions of dollars
in global bond markets held by institutional investors.’’
Agbarakwe
said that participants at the forum were drawn from the federal
ministries of finance, budget and national planning, trade and
investment, the NSE, the Debt Management Office and the Central Bank of
Nigeri.
Others,
she said, were the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National
Assembly, the Africa Finance Corporation, the World Bank, UNEP, UNDP,
McKingsey and Company, Chapel Hill Denham, Stanbic IBTC, DFID/NIAF and
other private sector representatives. (NAN)