Minister urges infrastructure boost through green bonds

The Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, has stressed the need for government and capital market stakeholders to leverage opportunities in green bond programme, and boost infrastructural development.

The minister said this at the maiden Investors’ Capacity Building and Training Session on Green Bonds, organised by the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, in conjunction with Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa), and Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), in Lagos.

Jibril said: “The tenets of sustainable finance, and indeed, green bonds issuances have come to stay, and Nigeria should leverage the opportunities provided by this formidable partnership, which is geared to build a pool of green bond demonstration issues that will be used to finance key infrastructure and environmental friendly projects.”

The Associate Executive Director at FMDQ, Ms Tumi Sekoni, expressed delight in the partnership between FMDQ, FSD Africa, and CBI, noting that investors are a critical part of the market, and in no small measure, play a defining role in green investments.
According to her, the importance of stakeholder engagement across the sustainable and green finance value chain cannot be overemphasised, even as the Nigerian financial market sets to tap the development opportunities availed in this space.

The Director Financial markets at FSD Africa, Evans Osano, said: “We are delighted to be part of this partnership, which will enable investors – the driving force of green growth, to be better equipped to evaluate green investments and thus build the green economy of Nigeria. We hope that other African markets will soon learn from Nigeria’s example and follow suit to enable attractive green investments that will drive sustainable green bond growth.”
  
Contributing, the Director, Market Development at CBI, Justine Leigh-Bell, said: “This roundtable is another step towards a robust Nigerian green finance market. The early involvement of investors is a vital component of the broad stakeholder support required to develop initial green issuances.”