Green bonds are innovative debt instruments with the capacity to galvanize resources from domestic and international capital markets to drive sustainable development. With Nigeria launching its first green bond in 2017 (the first-ever sovereign issuance in an emerging market), it is clear that the Nigerian market is ripe for this innovative instrument as part of the alternative funding options to fund the budget deficit.
A green bond issuance will help Nigeria tap into the growing global market for green bonds, which comprised $576 billion of unlabelled climate-aligned bonds and $118 billion of labelled green bonds as of 2016, according to London-based Climate Bonds Initiative.
In response to this, Access Bank joined the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange (FMDQ), Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa), Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to officially launch the Nigerian Green Bond Market Development Programme. The event which took place in Lagos, Nigeria, from June 5 – 7, 2018 extensively reviewed the concept of green financing and its relevance to the Nigerian economy, this initiative will foster investment in green bonds as an alternative to financing infrastructure and sustainable development.
The event also involved a series of targeted roundtable sessions aimed at demystifying the concept of green bonds as an alternative financing instrument for stakeholders (investors, issuers and intermediaries). The event created awareness and drove education required to integrate the principles of green financing into the Nigerian debt capital markets.
The event included roundtable sessions and a plenary/formal launch of the Nigerian Green Bond Programme. The roundtable brought together intermediaries, investors, issuers, helping them see the importance and need to invest in the growing market for Green bonds. In the course of the interactions, these stakeholders were exposed to new and existing projects that will deliver environmental benefits, helping them further understand the challenges of such projects. There were also breakout sessions for discussions where participants had the opportunity to actively engage one another on the concept of green bond.
Access Bank hosted the Investors and Issuers Roundtable which took place on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at the Access Bank Head office. During the formal launch of the Nigerian Green Bond Programme, Dr. Herbert Wigwe, GMD/CEO Access Bank, in his keynote address said that “Access Bank is honoured to partner with this group of forward-thinking industry leaders that are truly concerned about creating and promoting processes and practices that will preserve resources today to create more opportunities for future generation”. He added that “Harnessing the opportunities inherent in green bonds as a nation will facilitate the extension of the Nigerian market to new currencies, supporting new issuers and considering new forms of green bonds, and by expanding the green bond concept to resilient infrastructure, we can play a major role in expanding the flow of this new wave of sustainable finance. These benefits will shape a future for Nigeria and indeed Africa that is truly Sustainable.”