Catherine Koffman, Regional Director for Africa at the Green Climate Fund (GCF), spoke to CHINEDUM UWAEGBULAM on the Regional Dialogue with West and Central Africa held in Ghana about GCF’s finance reforms, challenges facing Nigeria in developing bankable projects and accessing international climate finance, as well as how climate funding can better support national priorities and accelerate climate action.

With the Green Climate Fund’s programming capacity increasing by more than $4 billion, what concrete changes should countries such as Nigeria expect in terms of access to climate finance, and how quickly can this additional financing translate into projects on the ground?
For countries like Nigeria, the practical change is twofold: more resources are available for climate investments, and GCF is also investing in the enabling conditions that help countries turn national climate priorities into strong proposals.

The speed at which financing translates into projects on the ground will depend on the maturity of project pipelines, the role of accredited entities, and the approval process, but the aim of GCF’s reforms and readiness support is to make that pathway clearer, more predictable and more responsive to countries’ needs.

Nigeria has significant climate-finance needs but continues to face challenges in developing bankable projects and accessing international climate funds. What are the biggest gaps you see in Nigeria’s climate-finance architecture, and what should the government and its financial institutions do differently to address them?
Like many developing countries, Nigeria faces difficulties in preparing bankable projects and accessing international climate funds. As international public climate finance declines, Nigeria will need to mobilise more domestic and private capital as well as to make greater use of catalytic funding, including from the Green Climate Fund.

To address the challenges faced by developing countries like Nigeria, GCF has introduced major reforms to improve access to climate finance. These include a more transparent, fit-for-purpose accreditation framework; simpler and faster project review and approval; programmatic readiness support aligned with countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and adaptation plans; and dedicated support for direct access entities such as the Development Bank of Nigeria.

Through the GCF Readiness and Project Preparation programme, support is available to national designated authorities of developing countries, including Nigeria. This support can strengthen institutional coordination, identify priority projects, prepare them for financing and build the capacity of national institutions seeking GCF accreditation. When used strategically, these programmes can strengthen the link between national climate goals and the institutional and financial systems needed to deliver them.

The GCF is supporting the Development Bank of Nigeria through readiness funding to strengthen its climate programming, pipeline development and project appraisal. What specific outcomes does the fund expect from this support, and how could it change Nigeria’s ability to attract and deploy climate finance?
GCF Readiness support will help the Development Bank of Nigeria translate its accreditation into effective climate-finance delivery by strengthening governance, safeguards, fiduciary and project-appraisal systems, staff capacity, climate-risk management, monitoring and reporting.

It will also help build investment-ready project pipelines and tailored financial products, finance analytical and feasibility studies, and develop GCF concept notes and funding proposals. Together, these measures are intended to help both institutions mobilise domestic and international capital, deploy climate finance at scale, and deliver high-impact, low-carbon and climate-resilient investments for Nigerian businesses and communities. This is exactly what GCF reforms aim to deliver: reducing the distance between climate ambition and access to climate finance.

During the regional dialogue for West and Central Africa, GCF signed another readiness grant with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority a newly accredited entity.

The GCF is undertaking reforms to simplify access to finance. For smaller institutions, local financial institutions and private-sector developers that often struggle with the complexity of accessing international climate funds, what will these reforms change in practical terms?
Since the reforms began, GCF has expanded support to vulnerable and underserved countries, accelerated project processing, introduced a revised accreditation framework prioritising Direct Access Entities, and enhanced its ability to mobilise private capital at scale.

The new framework, which became effective on October 31, 2025, repositions accreditation as an institutional due diligence function, streamlines requirements, removes re-accreditation, replaces Accreditation Master Agreements with Funded Activity Agreements, introduces self-nomination, and establishes a nine-month service standard for processing accreditation applications.

The reform also shifts some fiduciary and safeguard reviews closer to the project approval stage, with the aim of making accreditation more transparent, predictable, efficient and accessible, particularly for national and regional institutions in developing countries.

Private capital is critical to closing Africa’s climate-finance gap. What instruments or approaches is GCF considering to make climate investments in Nigeria and other West and Central African countries more attractive to private investors, particularly in clean energy, urban resilience and adaptation?

GCF, as the world’s largest multilateral climate fund, understands what it takes to align private sector incentives with public climate goals, shifting and catalysing financial flows managed by the private sector into low-emission and climate-resilient investments in developing countries.

We know that investors and developers have the capacity to deliver the finance that is needed to create new markets and spur innovation across all sectors. But to unlock this potential, we need to address key barriers and risks.

This is where GCF comes in. We fund and mobilise the private sector, including institutional investors, project sponsors and financial institutions, through concessional instruments such as low-interest and long-tenor project loans, lines of credit to banks, equity investments and risk mitigators, such as guarantees, first-loss protection, and grant-based capacity-building programmes.

The GCF is establishing a regional office in Abidjan to serve West, Central and North Africa. What does a stronger regional presence mean for countries such as Nigeria, and how will the new office help ensure that climate finance responds more effectively to locally identified priorities rather than remaining largely driven by international institutions?
Our new regional presence will enable the Fund to better support national and regional climate priorities and respond more quickly to capacity needs in the region. This regional presence will bring GCF closer to countries, with programmatic support and national government engagement being led by a GCF team based in Africa.

Our team will be close enough to sit down with partners when we need to, understanding challenges as they arise and working through them together in real time. We’ll be supporting governments and national institutions more directly, helping shape priorities and move projects forward faster. This move is about making climate finance feel less distant and more doable for African countries, to turn national ambitions into action on the ground.