DBN gets accreditation to disburse green fund

The Development Bank of Nigeria has received accreditation from the Green Climate Fund, to access green financing for Nigeria’s manufacturing sector, among others.

The Managing Director of DBN, Tony Okpanachi, in a statement, noted that DBN’s accreditation was a collaboration that would boost Nigeria in its fight against the effects of climate change, such as desertification, global warming, unpredictable rainfall patterns, storms, and floods.

He stated that the accreditation would support sustainable development and promote environmentally friendly technologies in key sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, education, transport, and logistics.

Okpanachi pointed out that climate change poses an existential threat to Nigerians and impacts livelihoods through the depletion of grazing lands for livestock, rising sea levels causing excessive flooding, changing rainfall patterns affecting agricultural yields, poor water and air quality impacting health, and significant biodiversity loss.

According to the statement, the GCF accreditation empowers the DBN to develop and submit funding proposals for climate-related projects, oversee their management and implementation, and deploy a range of financial instruments such as concessional loans, co-financing, and blending for loans.

It added that it allowed the development bank to mobilise private sector capital for climate change initiatives.

“The accreditation covers projects under various categories, including basic fiduciary standards, specialised fiduciary standards, project management, on-lending and blending for loans, Environmental and Social Safeguards Risk: Category B, and medium-sized projects,” it added.

The DBN offered qualified techpreneurs the opportunity to secure financing deals during the just-concluded annual flagship tech event, 2024 DBN Techpreneur Summit 3.0, held, recently in Lagos.