Nigeria is the third most preferred destination for member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) seeking to fund projects that would promote green economy in Africa, a research done by the Governing Inclusive Green Growth in Africa (GIGGA) Network has disclosed.
The first two countries according to the report are Ethiopia and Kenya.
Authored by a team of researchers involved in climate change, renewable energy and sustainable environment, but funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) of the UK government, the research titled: “Mapping inclusive green growth projects in Africa,” explained that 21 per cent of the funds OECD countries put into developing renewable energy solutions; climate change technologies and sustainable green environment in Africa come to Nigeria.
The summary of the report by the lead researcher, Chukwumerije Okereke, a professor in environment and development from the University of Reading, stated that Kenya and Ethiopia recorded financial receipts for green economy development of 38 and 24 per cent respectively.
It further explained that though Nigeria has no dedicated national green growth plan, it has however included a couple of green growth projects – especially renewable energy, in its Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
Also, it explained that more of private and government funding for green growth projects in renewable energy are seen in Nigeria.
“In the face of the global climate change, increasing natural resource degradation and rising environmental pollution, many African countries are attempting to embrace the concept of green economy as a means of growing their economies while enhancing social justice and protecting the environment.
“With the exception of South Africa, Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are not systematically documenting their green economy activities in a way that could allow coordination, measure progress, and offer lessons from best practice.
“The distribution of the OECD-DAC commitments among the five case study countries. It shows that Kenya and Ethiopia are the first and second highest receipts at 38 per cent and 24 per cent receptively. Nigeria is in third place at 21 per cent.
“The flow of green growth funding is dependent on many factors, but it is likely that having a clear and ambitious green growth plan contributes to the high rate of attraction of finance by Kenya and Ethiopia,” it explained.
According to the report, the UK, Japan, and Germany are the leading funders of green economy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It added that funding from the USA, Canada, Australia and many of the Nordic countries is troublingly low.
It further noted that while SSA is the most vulnerable continent to climate change, it contributes only about four per cent of global greenhouse gas, and that to a large extent, green economy activities represent extra burden imposed on SSA by advanced countries who are responsible for much of the global carbon stock causing climate change.
Disclosing more on how SSA countries source for fund for green economy projects, it explained that: “Funding of inclusive green growth projects in SSA varies across countries in our sample but largely depending on foreign investment and support.
“Domestic sources to finance inclusive green investment have been very limited. Within domestic sources, the involvement of private sector investment has also been very limited. “More specifically, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda appear to depend mainly on international organisations to fund their green projects, while South Africa and Nigeria seem to rely more on domestic sources of funding from both the public and private sectors.
“In South Africa, a large number of the projects are undertaken by the regional and municipal governments. In Nigeria, most of the identified projects are being funded by the federal government, although states such as Lagos are undertaking some important green projects,” it added.
