The European Investment Bank on Thursday, September 7 announced 50 million US dollars of support to climate finance initiatives in Africa at the just concluded Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment to contribute towards EU policy goals.
The Bank announced its support through partnerships with two Equity Funds operating in Africa. The Equity funds will help to finance the activities of the climate initiatives.
The financial institution made a commitment of USD 40M to Acre Impact Capital’s Export Finance Fund to support renewable power, health, food and water scarcity to enhance sustainable cities and green transport.
The Bank partnered with the Export finance Fund to deliver long-term debt financing that will be guaranteed by official export credit agencies.
At the same time, the Bank also confirmed support of USD 10M to Camco Management Limited which invests in clean energy deployment across. Africa.
EIB recognizes that grants, technical assistance, financial instruments and the presence of public money in supporting climate action initiatives will help to reduce risk perception thus spurring private investment.
Speaking during an event on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit, EIB Vice President Thomas Ostros expressed the need to green Africa’s financial sector with an aim of availing affordable credit to spur climate action.
He also urged the inclusion of the private sector to unlock more capital flows due to the increasingly constrained public resources.
According to the Press release from EIM, Equity Bank CEO Dr. James Mwangi held a discussion with EIM Vice President Thomas Ostros, it was agreed that Multilateral Banks and other international financial institutions need to do more to avail climate finance to Africa with a focus on accessibility, affordability and flexibility.
Apart from providing capital, the EIB leverages existing climate expertise from the various projects it has done to harmonise approaches and concepts through key learnings.
The EIB engages with companies, think-tanks, not-for-profit organisations, public authorities and other international financial institutions.
To date, the Bank has committed over USD 2.6 billion in over 124 funds with a geographic focus entailing Africa. Some of these funds are country-specific, while some have a regional and a global geographic focus.