The African Green Bank initiative provides $1.6 million to support the first Green Finance Facilities in Africa

( AfDB) - The African Development Bank has launched the African Green Bank Initiative to tackle Africa’s key barriers to climate financing and promote resilient, green and sustainable growth.

The Green Bank Initiative will be supported by the African Green Finance Facility Fund (AG3F), which aims at developing an ecosystem of local and regional Green Finance Facilities to mobilize private investment in support of climate transition. AG3F promotes the deployment of the Green Bank Model throughout the continent. To ensure rapid deployment, AG3F will partner with existing local financial institutions and leverage on their network, financing capacity and experienced staff.

For its pilot phase, AG3F aims at mobilizing $10 million for the technical assistance, of which $1.6 million have already been secured, and $90 million to support the capitalization of the first Green Finance Facilities. Contributors will include donor countries, multilateral development banks, development finance institutions (DFI), climate funds and philanthropic or impact investors. First beneficiaries include Banque Nationale d’Investissement de Côte d’Ivoire and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations du Bénin, which will develop pipelines of clean energy, resilient infrastructures or smart agriculture projects.

Green Finance Facilities will support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local communities by offering direct access to climate finance. The initiative will help African countries implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), as investment needs are estimated at $2.8 trillion by 2030 and funds invested on the continent still represent a limited share of global green finance flows.

AG3F will benefit from best practices and support of strategic partners for the creation, financing and deployment of Green Banks. These partners have built an international reputation in the area of climate finance and include the leading European asset manager Amundi, the knowledge platform Green Bank Network, the leading multilateral fund Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and Canada’s Climate Action in Africa project...Read more on Ecofin Agency

Source: Ecofin Agency