The African Development Bank (AfDB) recently announced green finance facilities in partnership with the government of Benin’s La Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations du Bénin (CDC) and the government of Côte d’Ivoire’s Banque Nationale d’Investissement (BNI). The aggregate value of the two facilities is USD 1.6 million.
Solomon Quaynor, AfDB’s Vice President for the Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization, said the program includes “technical assistance [that] will enhance local financial institutions’ climate governance, green projects’ origination and monitoring, which is therefore key to attract private capital by entrenching long-term investor confidence.”
Other goals of the program include lowering the cost of project finance and creating “a robust pipeline of bankable green projects while de-risking investments.”
The two facilities are the first under AfDB’s African Green Bank Initiative, which was launched in 2022 to help African countries achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions, as outlined in the 2015 Paris Climate Accords. Amundi, an asset manager majority-owned by France’s Credit Agricole, has agreed to invest capital in the facilities as well as to support them with investment and management training for CDC and BNI.
Based in the city of Cotonou, CDC provides financing to private companies with XOF 250 billion (USD 410 million) in authorized funding as of 2021.
BNI was founded in 1959 and is based in the city of Abidjan. Its goal include to boost access to finance, including for small and medium-sized enterprises.
AfDB Group was founded in 1964 and provides loans and grants to governments and private companies in Africa. It consists of three entities, AfDB, the African Development Fund and the Nigerian Trust Fund. Owned and funded by its member governments, the bank has a mandate to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development. AfDB reports having disbursed loans totaling XUA 1.6 billion (USD 1.2 billion) during 2021, ending the year with assets of XUA 36 billion (USD 27 billion).
Based in France, Amundi reports EUR 1.9 trillion (USD 2.1 trillion) in assets under management as of 2023. It has 5,400 employees and 100 million clients. The firm was founded in 2010.
By Ben Barba, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
AfDB press release
https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/benin-cote-divoire-premier-african-development-banks-african-green-bank-facilities-61092
AfDB homepage
https://www.afdb.org/
CDC homepage
https://cdcb.bj
BNI homepage
https://www.bni.ci
Amundi homepage
https://www.amundi.com/
AfDB press release on the African Green Bank Initiative
https://allafrica.com/stories/202211170458.html
Previous MicroCapital story on AfDB
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-canada-african-development-bank-afdb-announce-78m-for-lending-to-gender-inclusive-climate-resilient-agricultural-smes/
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