Alex Rose-Innes
Africa’s plans to combat climate change had just received USD 1 million from the African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) for the private sector in Africa.
Japan and Austria had approved funding to grow the participation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC’s) in reducing greenhouse gas emissions on the continent.
With these governments, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is also a contributor to FAPA, a multi-donor thematic trust providing funding for technical assistance as part of the bank’s Private Sector Development Strategy. The fund had already granted more than USD 68million to 79 individual projects in 38 countries across the African continent. This includes regional and national projects which aim to improve the business environment, strengthen financial systems, build private sector infrastructure, promote trade and assist the development of micro, small and medium enterprises.
Projects are overseen by the Climate Change and Green Growth Department of the AfDB, involving the private sector, especially SME’s, to improve the integration of climate change measures across its investment decisions.
AfDB Regional Member Countries (RMC’s) selected for the implementation of this project are Egypt, Angola, Mozambique, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa (SA), hoping to enhance the SME’s capacity and support project developers and sponsors to fast track green investments. The grant would also aid in increasing private sector investments facilitating implementation of NDC’s in target countries.
Finally, the ambitious project would target existing constraints hampering climate finance, such as lack of enterprise knowledge and grow capacity in preparing financially sound green project proposals.
