Nigeria May Get $70bn From Climate Change Investment—IFC

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank Group, has disclosed that Nigeria may get $70bn from the current climate change investment opportunities worth over $24.7trn.

It said that the $70bn, which Nigeria is set to receive is about seven per cent share of the $1trn climate change investment opportunities coming to Africa.

The IFC’s EDGE and Green Building Market Transformation Programme Contact for Lagos, Temilola Sonola, disclosed this in Lagos, during her presentation at the Knight Frank Nigeria Breakfast Roundtable, with the theme: “Real Estate, Construction, and Tech: The Future of Real Estate Services in Nigeria”

Sonola, who addressed the topic, “Revolutionary Ideas in Real Estate,” revealed that the IFC’s recent report had shown that climate change presents Investment opportunities worth over $24.7trn, with Africa getting a $1trn share of that.

She said “We also believe that it’s a good investment opportunity. So, if you see climate change right now as not making money, you are wrong.

“The reason being that we recently did a report that said that in the world generally, the opportunity in terms of climate change is over $24.7trn.

“And for Africa, that is over $1trn, and who do you think that the chunk of it is going to go to in Africa? Definitely in Nigeria. So, Nigeria will probably get about seven per cent of that $1trn of investment opportunity.

“So, we see it as an opportunity and going further, we have decided that we are going to tackle climate change head on in different areas.

“This is why we think that we have to definitely do something about climate change because it’s pushing more people into poverty and it’s like regressing the work that we are doing over the years. So, we have to do something about it.”

She explained that climate change was the biggest thing being considered at the moment at the World Bank and IFC as it drives their lending decisions.

She noted that discussion about climate change was important to the IFC and the World Bank because it is a huge area and because of their belief that the issue could help them to fulfil their mandate of getting people out of poverty.

“So, we believe there is an investment opportunity and these are the focus areas for us in terms of climate change for the World Bank Group.

“We are looking at clean energy. So, the people who do the solar, windmills and so on, you are more likely to get a loan from IFC than if you were buying the diesel truck,” she added.