Development Bank, others seal pact on green project financing

The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) Plc, Financial Centre for Sustainability Lagos (FC4S Lagos) and the Nigeria Climate Innovation Center (NCIC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to fund green projects in Nigeria.

The pact will see DBN play the role of a funding partner for green projects across Nigeria, while the NCIC and FC4SL will serve as service providers.

The goal of the pact is to create a dedicated fund for green projects within the micro, small, and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) ecosystem.

This will ensure that MSMEs have access to finance to execute climate-resilient and green projects in support of the global drive on green and sustainability.

The MOU provides a general framework for a project implementation partnership between the service providers and DBN in respect of the provision of finance for green MSMEs in Nigeria.

The areas of collaboration between the service providers and the funding partner include developing the ecosystems for the financing of Green MSMEs, review of MSMEs project ideation and design, capacity building and ensuring financial readiness of MSMEs, in addition to the provision of strands for women-led MSMEs in green areas, research and data provision and project verification to ensure compliance with globally accepted taxonomy/sustainability principles and standards.