ABUJA, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Emomotimi Agama, has emphasised that Africa needs more than $100bn annually to bridge the financing gap for climate adaptation, advocating for the mobilisation of capital markets to meet this demand.
Agama made this call during a presentation titled ‘The Role of Capital Markets in Closing Financing Gaps for Climate Adaptation’, delivered at a recent African Development Bank meeting, according to a statement shared with our correspondent.
Referencing expert data, he noted that Africa contributes less than four per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions but suffers over 25 per cent of climate-related losses.
He warned that without urgent action, the continent could face an annual climate adaptation financing shortfall of up to $100bn by 2030.
According to him, “The 2022 Africa Economic Outlook by the AfDB estimated that the continent needs around $500bn of climate finance by 2030. Africa will also need to invest more than $3 tn in mitigation and adaptation by 2030 to implement its Nationally Determined Contributions.”
Agama pointed out that the numbers signify more than just statistics they reflect a widening gap between vulnerability and resilience.
“They translate into lost livelihoods in the Sahel, vanishing fish stocks in the Gulf of Guinea, and more frequent flooding in Lagos and Nairobi,” he said.
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Citing the 2023 United Nations Environment Programme Adaptation Gap Report, he disclosed that developing countries would require between $212bn and $387bn annually for climate adaptation by 2030.
“For Africa specifically, the gap is immense, estimated to be up to 50 times current funding levels,” he added.
He encouraged project developers and private sector actors to put forward bankable, pipeline-ready projects with robust environmental and social metrics.
Agama stressed that African capital markets can play a pivotal role in addressing the financing deficit through market integration, standard alignment, and the adoption of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) framework.
“Closing the climate adaptation financing gap in Africa is not a distant aspiration but a development imperative, and one that demands our collective ingenuity and capital,” he said.
He recalled Nigeria’s issuance of a sovereign green bond in 2017 the first in sub-Saharan Africa which was oversubscribed by 2.5 times, largely driven by Nigerian pension funds and diaspora investors.
This, he said, illustrates that local institutional capital can be mobilised when appropriate instruments and regulatory assurances are in place.
Agama also highlighted the SEC’s role in representing Nigeria on the ISSB’s Adoption Readiness Working Group, which developed a roadmap for implementing the IFRS S1 and S2 Sustainability Disclosure Standards.
The roadmap outlines a phased adoption voluntary between January 2024 and December 2026, and mandatory from January 2027.
Describing the ISSB Standards as a game-changer, Agama noted that Nigeria is already at the forefront of developing climate finance products and setting benchmarks for sustainability disclosures globally.
He concluded with a call for enhanced regional market integration, harmonised ESG standards, and the use of credit enhancement tools to de-risk early-stage climate investments.
“Let us seize this moment as regulators, investors, governments, standard-setters, and development partners to deepen African capital markets and finance the resilience of our continent and our people,” he added.