DMO, others advocate capital mobilisation to fund green projects

The Debt Management Office (DMO) has stressed the need for issuers and investors to key into funds mobilisation geared towards promoting green financing and sustainability drive in Nigeria.

Director-General of DMO, Patience Oniha, while speaking at FMDQ Green Exchange Launch and partnership deal with the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX) in Lagos on Monday, stated that the current trend suggests that there will be an increase in the demand for funds to support such projects and finance infrastructure.

She said: “As there is more awareness and more pressure on the government to look at those projects, it means we have to raise funds in our own case. Revenues will be there but we may also need to borrow to finance those projects and this means that we will be issuing securities that comply with those requirements.

“It means that our initial activity, the domestic green bond market, should increase. While we have a total of N25.69 billion outstanding, we still plan to be in the market, sometime, next year.

“Going forward, the FG would be an active issuer in the FMDQ green exchange and what we need to do is to do a lot of sensitization to make those projects approved and the funding arrangement”, Oniha said.

In his keynote address at the event, Governor, Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, noted that the launch of the green exchange is a step in the right direction for mainstreaming finance and development in Africa.

Sanwo-Olu who was represented by the Special Adviser on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Investments in Lagos state, Solape Hammond, said the LGX, which was the first green exchange, has since become the world’s leading platform for sustainable securities issuing about 50 per cent of green securities in the total of 32 currencies.

“As of August 2020, the LGX displayed 796 green, social and sustainable securities totaling $356 billion and as the first exchange to be launched in Africa, we see the potential impact that the FMDQ green exchange can also have in solving our most pressing problems.”

“We urge them to deliver no less than a similar level of leadership and a greater success story for the region. Nigeria has committed to the SDGs and the net zero agenda and rightly so because to achieve these lofty goals, funding is required”, he said.

He stated that public funding alone will not suffice and added that private capital needs to be mobilized to reach the objectives defined in the Paris climate agreement and the UNSDGs.

“The financial sector will therefore need to play a vital role in accelerating local marketability to provide the required support.

“It is just this opportunity that FMDQ green exchange is embracing and creating by expanding green blue sustainability funding options as alternative options of funding for projects and assets not just in Lagos but across the African region.

“The Lagos state government believes that the launch of the green exchange will open up options especially unlocking sustainable investment opportunities for investors”, Sanwo-Olu said.

Chief Executive Officer, FMDQ Group, Bola Onadele said the group recognises the opportunities its business presents in its ability to promote sustainable economic growth and development and as such understands that the delivery of long term business success, value creation and prosperity is not only hinged on financial but also the environment and social performance.