Category: Press release

Leveraging the African insurance industry to create resilient African economies

Posted on by TIMOTHYRADIER
Speakers
Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State
Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, High Level Climate Champion
Hon. Bogolo J Kenewendo, Africa Director, High Level Climate Champions
Dorothy Maseke, Group Head of Risk and Compliance ICEA Lion Group 
Kelvin Massingham, Director – Risk and Resilience – FSD Africa
Lesley Ndlovu, CEO – African Risk Capacity
Patty Karuihe-Martin, CEO – Namib Re
Philip Lopokoiyit, Group CEO – ICEA LION Group

Africa insurance industry to underwrite $14bn of cover for climate risks by 2030

9 November 2022, Sharm El Sheikh – The Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance (NDSI) signatories have today announced a first-ever financial commitment by the African insurance industry to underwrite $14 billion of cover for Africa’s climate risks by 2030.

The announcement was made at COP27 side event: “Leveraging the African insurance industry to create resilient African economies.” Moderated by Hon. Bogolo Kenewendo, Africa Director and Special Advisor, High-Level Climate Action Champions, the session highlighted the critical role of the African insurance industry in creating climate resilience for the continent.

This commitment comes as Africa continues to face irreversible loss and damage associated with global climate change impacts such as drought, flood and tropical cyclones.  With African nations among the most exposed globally to the impacts of climate change and nature loss, Africa cannot continue to rely on international aid and developed world climate finance commitments to respond to climate catastrophes.

Local, market-based disaster risk finance solutions must be developed and scaled, including risk transfer solutions such as insurance, as these are critical tools in ensuring resilience. In particular, the leverage and immediate deployment of capital that insurance capital allows need to be further utilised.

It is in response to this that the 85+ NDSI signatories are announcing the creation of the African Climate Risk Facility, which will take a targeted approach to respond to climate risk. Through this facility they are committing to underwrite $14bn of cover for climate risks by 2030 to protect 1.4 billion people against floods, droughts, and tropical cyclones.

The Africa Climate Risk Facility is a mechanism that will scale private sector underwriting of climate disaster risk in Africa. It will facilitate the uptake of climate risk insurance by African sovereigns, cities humanitarian organisations and NGO’s to help African countries better manage the financial impacts of climate shocks and increase the resilience of the most vulnerable communities. The Facility will include a donor-funded Trust Fund that provides premium subsidies, product development technical assistance and policyholder capacity building. The governance of the Trust Fund will be designed to allow swift response to opportunities.

Kelvin Massingham, Director Risk and Resilience, FSD Africa said: “Mainstreaming resilience into Africa’s economic development is essential to secure future prosperity and sustainable growth. Now is the time for the African insurance sector to play the significant role it should in creating this resilience. The Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance’s proactive and market-based approach is exactly what we need, and the commitment today is a strong statement to work together to provide an African-led solution to loss and damage.”

Patty Karuihe-Martin, CEO Namib Re commented: “Irreversible Loss or Damage refers to the calamitous impacts of climate change that cannot be circumvented by mitigation and adaptation alone. So apart from managing risk, crafting affordable risk transfer and risk sharing solutions through compliant, trusted and responsive Insurance and Reinsurance for such loss or damage for the developing countries is a crucial discussion; if not for unfailing and guaranteed resilience then at least to allow for decent work and dignified life to continue.”

Phillip Lopokoiyit, Group CEO, ICEA LION Group said: “As private sector insurers, we have a key role to play in ensuring a sustainable future. Our priority lies in providing solutions that will support the resilience of our clients in light of the greatest challenge facing humanity. Coming together as signatories to support the set-up of the Africa Climate Risk Facility, will provide the necessary capacity needed by insurers to the solutions that will respond to climate risk. The commitment that we have made, as signatories, to underwrite $14 billion of cover for climate risks by 2030, will protect 1.4 billion people against floods, droughts, and tropical cyclones.This is indeed a testament of our quest to ensure that we contribute to the long term sustainability and economic resilience of our countries.“

About the Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance:

Launched in April 2021, The Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance is the declaration of commitment by African insurance industry leaders to support the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Accredited by the United Nations Environment Programme, Principles for Sustainable Insurance (UNEP PSI) and with over 85 signatories, it is promoting action by the African insurance sector towards sustainability goals.

This Africa focussed initiative was designed to encourage and support the African insurance market players to commit to sustainable insurance practices. It is also a convening platform for a united African voice on the global stage on climate change issues affecting the continent and the insurance sector.

The Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance is an alliance of senior leaders in Africa’s insurance ecosystem who are committed to accelerate solutions to major sustainability challenges – ranging from climate change and ecosystem degradation to poverty and social inequality – particularly in a post-Covid-19 world.

To date, more than 85 insurers, reinsurers and brokers have signed the Declaration and committed to the five key areas including risk management; insurance; investment; policy, regulatory and industry engagement; and sustainable insurance thinking and practices.

For further details on the Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance or any interview requests, please contact:

FSD Africa 

Nelson Karanja

Director, Communications & Engagement

FSD Africa

nelson@fsdafrica.org

InfraCo Africa to invest US$15m to anchor pioneering new guarantee company

Posted on by TIMOTHYRADIER

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt: On the opening day of COP27, InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) has announced that it will invest US$15m into a newly established guarantee company, alongside a US$5m commitment from Cardano Development. The announcement was made as part of a KES 500bn package of new investment from the UK to support Kenya’s leadership on climate change.i 

Established by InfraCo Africa and Cardano Development with support from PIDG and FSD Africa, the new company is modelled on InfraCredit Nigeria and InfraZamin Pakistan, aiming to unlock local capital into sustainable infrastructure and projects that improve climate mitigation and adaptation and deliver on the SDGs. InfraCredit Nigeria is an infrastructure guarantee facility established in 2017 by PIDG company GuarantCo and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority. InfraCo Africa became InfraCredit’s third investor in 2020. PIDG has sought opportunities to replicate this innovative model in other geographies, including establishing InfraZamin Pakistan. FSD Africa has also extended grant funding to Cardano Development valued at nearly US$297,000 for the establishment of the new company, and GuarantCo is exploring the possibility of providing a contingent capital facility to the company in the near future. 

PIDG’s CEO Philippe Valahu said, “We are pleased to announce our anchor investment into this new guarantee company during the important COP27 summit. As well as addressing Kenya’s and East Africa’s infrastructure access gap, the new company will issue guarantees to projects that are Paris aligned, helping to link flows of finance with global efforts to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.” He continued,  “This innovative model of local currency guarantees has proven to be successful in Nigeria – where InfraCredit Nigeria has issued circa NGN 114 bn worth of local currency guarantees in its first five years of operations – and also in Pakistan, where InfraZamin Pakistan recently issued its first guarantee.”  

The initial focus of operations will be in Kenya. Kenya holds significant wealth in pension,ii life insurance and private wealth funds. However, Kenyan infrastructure projects and other cash-flow based investments are largely reliant on US dollar denominated bank loans, loans which seldom offer the length of tenor required for successful developments and which expose borrowers to currency exchange risk.  

InfraCo Africa’s Chief Investment Officer, Claire Jarrett said, “The new guarantee company seeks to issue up to US$100m of local currency guarantees in its first few years of operations. Kenya’s capital markets are developing quickly and it is hoped that access to local currency guarantees will enable institutional investors such as pensions and insurance funds to invest into high-quality assets whilst also supporting businesses to secure the finance needed for them to deliver vital new infrastructure, underpinning economic development across the country.” 

Joost Zuidberg, CEO Cardano Development added, “Cardano Development is proud to act as a catalyst for making emerging and frontier markets more investible, through our incubating activity and investment into the new guarantee company. With climate change at the top of the global agenda, our expertise, alongside our partners InfraCo Africa and PIDG, will help fast-track the flow of climate friendly finance into key sectors, through local currency guarantees.” 

Mark Napier, CEO FSD Africa, and Board Member of the GFANZ Africa Advisory Board said, “The mandate of the new guarantee company is well aligned to critical climate finance initiatives such as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero’s (GFANZ) objective of addressing sector-wide challenges associated with the net-zero transition helping to ensure high levels of ambition are met with credible action.  FSD Africa is committed to supporting local currency bond markets in Africa as well as local currency credit enhancement facilities as they play an important de-risking role. This role is pivotal in the mobilisation of climate finance from both local and international owners of capital to African economies that require different sources of capital to fund their green growth.” 

 

Announcement of new board member, Arunma Oteh

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Nairobi, 24 October 2022 – We have recently announced the appointment of Arunma Oteh, a seasoned business leader, to our Board of Directors to support the organisation’s work to strengthen and deepen Africa’s financial markets, particularly in the area of green finance.

Arunma is passionate about the role of financial markets in catalysing Africa’s success. Her deep expertise in finance, capital markets, economic development and sustainability as well as her wealth of experience in management, corporate governance and regulation will be indispensable to FSD Africa.

Arunma Oteh is a scholar and a member of the Global Leadership Council of Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. She is also the Chairperson of Veritas Asset Management, a U.K. asset manager and sits on corporate boards such as the Afreximbank Pan-African Payment System and Settlements Initiative. She is a member of the London Stock Exchange Africa Advisory Group.

Before joining the University of Oxford, she was Treasurer and Vice President of the World Bank and, before that, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria. She previously held several senior leadership positions at the African Development Bank (AfDB), including Group Treasurer and Group Vice President, Corporate Services. Arunma commenced her career in 1984 as a Lecturer of Computer Science at the University of Benin and has held several important positions in consulting, capital markets, finance, and research.

During her time as Director General of SEC Nigeria, she led the rebuilding of the Nigerian capital markets after the global financial crisis. She was also a member of Nigeria’s Economic Management Team, chaired by the President of Nigeria. She also served on the Board of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and chaired the Africa Middle East Regional Committee, during the same period.

As Treasurer of the World Bank, she led a global team that managed $200 billion multi-product asset portfolios for the World Bank Group, 65 central banks and other official institutions. They also raised over US$50 billion from the global capital markets, annually, for the World Bank’s lending activities. During this time, she led several ground-breaking green finance and thematic transactions and oversaw an extensive public sector financial advisory business that covered debt management, risk management and green finance.

Arunma Oteh graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1984 with a first-class honours degree in Computer Science. She received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1990 and holds honorary doctorate degrees. She has received several awards, notably Nigeria’s Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in 2011, Power List’s 2020 top 100 people in the U.K. of African heritage and Forbes Africa’s 50 most influential African women in March 2020. She is the co-editor of the book African Voices African Visions, the Chairperson of the 120-year-old Royal African Society and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Prince’s Trust International, among other important charitable causes.

FSD Africa is extremely fortunate to have Arunma join its Board of Directors. Her experience as Treasurer of the World Bank and as Director-General of SEC Nigeria gives her a unique insight into the state of global and African financial markets. This will be immensely helpful to FSD Africa as it continues developing ambitious programmes that grow and improve these markets.
Mark Napier, CEO – FSD Africa

Diago Dièye joins the Nyala Venture team as Managing Director

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Amsterdam, 11 October 2022 Diago Dièye has today joined Nyala Venture as Managing Director. She combines robust finance and investment experience with a strong network in the SGB (small and growing businesses) and LCP (Local Capital Providers) ecosystem. Diago’s previous position was Chief Operating Officer and Program Director of an impact investment fund that finances SGBs. She most recently co-structured and deployed a USD 30 million Access to Finance Program, which led to the financing of more than 600 SGBs and 11,000 micro-entrepreneurs through 15 LCPs.

Diago is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience spent between the US, the UK and Senegal in the financial services industry. As a specialist in Corporate Finance, particularly for SGBs in frontier markets, she has been focusing on delivering capital to SGBs for the past 10 years.

FSDAi hopes to accelerate capital flows into SGBs especially those focused on closing the gender gap. We are excited to have Diago join Nyala Venture team to drive this important work and look forward to seeing this nascent asset class grow.
Anne-Marie Chidzero, Chief Investment Officer, FSD Africa Investments

The British Embassy in Egypt celebrates milestone achievements in climate finance, and new UK-Egypt bilateral agreements

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04 October 2022, CAIRO – Today, the British Embassy in Egypt hosted an event marking “One Month to Go to COP27”, celebrating the UK and Egypt’s growing green partnership.

The event marked the launch of the UK’s Climate Finance Accelerator in Egypt, a new programme which will help low-carbon projects access the funding they need. Attendees also witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between FSD Africa and the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), to help make the financial sector in Egypt more sustainable.

The event began with opening remarks from British Ambassador to Egypt Gareth Bayley, followed by a keynote speech via phone conference from Minister of Environment Dr Yasmine Fouad, who said that the Climate Finance Accelerator is essential and critical mechanism for financing climate change.

The event also included a panel discussion on climate finance moderated by the CFA team. Panellists included Dr. Dalia Abdel Kader, Chief Sustainability Officer CIB, as well as other experts in the field.

The Climate Finance Accelerator is already making a difference elsewhere in Africa and around the world.  It is great news that Egypt will now feature as part of this innovative approach to help low-carbon projects secure investment. Climate financing is one of the key demands for COP27, and with the introduction of such a programme in Egypt, we show that we are not only listening, but also taking action. I am also particularly proud to witness today the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between FSD Africa and the Financial Regulatory Authority to help make the Egyptian financial sector more sustainable. Such achievements showcase the real strength of the UK and Egypt’s growing green partnership.”

Gareth Bayley, British Ambassador to Egypt

New study finds that climate finance for Africa needs to grow 9x from $30 billion to $277 billion to meet 2030 climate goal

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21 September 2022 – Research released today from Climate Policy Initiative finds that total annual climate finance flows in Africa for 2020, domestic and international, were only USD 30 billion, just 11% of the USD 277 billion needed annually. While the financing gap is significant, Africa’s rapid urbanization, expanding infrastructure, and energy-access needs offer significant investment opportunities.

Commissioned by FSD Africa, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and UK Aid, the Landscape of Climate Finance in Africa is a first-of-its-kind analysis to map climate finance flows in Africa by region, by sector, and by source. It aims to establish a baseline of public and private climate finance flows in Africa to help investors and climate negotiators scale up climate finance by improving the understanding of the volume, sources, thematic uses, and sectoral allocation of these flows to identify entry points, financing gaps, and opportunities for new investments.

Innovative finance is essential to tackle barriers to investment in Africa’s climate finance needs – at an average investment of USD 250 billion annually from 2020 to 2030

Posted on by 5iveafrica

11 August 2022: The African continent presents a massive investment opportunity for investors to advance the deployment of climate solutions in the coming decade according to a new report Climate Finance Innovation for Africa. However, this will require innovation in financing structures and the strategic deployment of public capital to ‘crowd-in’ private investment at levels not yet seen.

Current levels of climate finance in Africa fall far short of needs. Africa’s USD 2.5 trillion of climate finance needed between 2020 and 2030 requires, on average, USD 250 billion each year. Total annual climate finance flows in Africa for 2020, domestic and international, were only USD 30 billion (CPI forthcoming), about 12% of the amount needed.

Barriers related to shallow financial market depth, governance, project-specific characteristics, and enabling skills and infrastructure have stifled private investment in African climate solutions to date.

To overcome these challenges will require innovation in financing structures. But there is no one-size fits all. Public and private investors must tailor their financial instruments and strategies depending on the acute or chronic nature of the barriers identified.

Recommended actions for increasing the deployment of innovative finance include: Identifying and understand barriers constraining finance by sector and geography, matching instruments with barriers, matching instruments with project and technology lifecycles, enhancing engagement and co-financing with local stakeholders, and supporting innovation by establishing conducive policy and regulatory frameworks.

This work provides a framework for how these instruments and strategies can be efficiently deployed to overcome barriers to finance and capitalise climate solutions in Africa.

Read full report here.

FSD Africa and CDG Capital support Africa’s first corporate clean mobility green bond worth $95m issued by Morocco’s National Railway Operator

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This is Africa’s first corporate clean mobility bond worth 1 billion dirhams ($95m) launched by the Office National des Chemin de Fer (ONCF) to facilitate the refinancing of the operations of an electrified railway line aiming to achieve low carbon transportation in Morocco.

Casablanca, 28 July 2022: Africa’s first corporate clean mobility bond has today been launched by Morocco’s national railway operator (ONCF). ONCF was supported by CDG Capital in the strategic advice, structuring, placement, centralization, and coordination of the green certification work with its partners FSD Africa and CBI.

With this issuance, ONCF is targeting to raise approximately 1 billion dirhams ($100m) to support the Al Boraq project, which has led to considerable gains for the community in terms of connectivity, travel time and frequency, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

This high-speed line (Ligne à Grande Vitesse – LGV) project is part of a master plan to connect Tangier to Marrakech by 2030, advancing economic development by providing faster inter-urban passenger and freight lines with reduced carbon emissions. Through the LGV Journey time between Tangier and Kenitra has been reduced by 2 hours and 25 minutes and will result in a reduction of over 2.9 million tonnes of carbon equivalent over a 30-year timeframe.

Climate Finance is an important focus area for FSD Africa. This project presents an opportunity for FSD Africa to support the issuance of Africa’s first corporate clean mobility bond.
Mark Napier, CEO – FSD Africa

FSD Africa and Rabobank ACORN/Rabo Foundation to fund sustainable farming for African small-scale farmers with loans for carbon credits

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FSD Africa will support Acorn projects in the initial scale phase that aims to benefit around 3,000-5,000 small-scale farmers whilst Acorn has the ambition to reach 1 million farmers all over the globe following the scale-up.

Nairobi – 27 July 2022: FSD Africa and Rabobank ACORN / Rabo Foundation today launched their collaboration in helping small-scale farmers with their transition to Agroforestry, a sustainable and climate resilient farming practice.

Acorn – Agroforestry Carbon removal units for the Organic Restoration of Nature – is a program being developed by Rabobank to unlock the international carbon market for smallholder farmers in the developing world. It aims to help farmers transition to agroforestry at scale and monetize the carbon stored in the trees planted through Acorn’s global transparent and technology-enabled marketplace for carbon sequestration. The collaboration will focus on kick-starting new small-scale farmers’ agroforestry projects in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia.

FSD Africa together with Rabo Foundation will provide finance to the small-scale farmers to help them transition to sustainable agroforestry. The local implementation partners will collect the farmer data and onboard the farmers onto the Acorn platform. They will then be able to sell carbon removal units (CRU) to corporate off-takers through Acorn’s technology-enabled marketplace. The proceeds of the CRUs will be used to pay back the loan. For FSD Africa as the financier, testing this innovative finance structure will be an important outcome of this first scale phase.

We are proud to acknowledge that this program will contribute to 8 out of 17 UN SDGs, including those related to poverty reduction, food security, reduction of pollution, economic productivity, resilience, sustainability of forests and capital mobilization.
Mark Napier, CEO – FSD Africa

FSD Africa signs agreement with Africa Pensions Supervisors Forum at annual conference

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Partnership to strengthen the continent’s pension sector, benefiting retirees and long-term savers.

Kigali, July 14 2022: The Africa Pensions Supervisors Forum (APSF) held its third annual forum in Kigali from July 14-15, 2022. The forum brought together pension supervisors from different African countries to deliver a harmonized approach for interventions and reforms in the pensions sector across the continent. The theme of the conference was “Resilience and sustainability of the pension sector amid the crisis- The case of covid 19 pandemic”.  Pension supervisors in Africa, relevant stakeholders, experts and partners in the pension industry shared experiences, discussed opportunities, challenges faced by the pension industry and new developments in the industry.

Through the network, countries will be better placed to tackle common problems and find solutions to challenges unique to Africa. The challenges include lower investment returns and Africa’s labour structure that comprises approximately 86% of labourers being in the informal sector and with limited access to the pension services.

By partnering with APSF we are jointly paving the way for a Harmonized approach towards interventions and reforms in the pensions sector. Our collaboration will forge solutions that speak to Africa’s unique pensions landscape.
Dr. Evans Osano, Director, Capital Markets – FSD Africa