Photo caption: Director-General of the SEC, Emomotimi Agama
The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Emomotimi Agama, says Africa requires over $100bn annually to address the financing gap for climate adaptation, calling for the mobilisation of capital markets.
In a statement made available to our correspondent, Agama made this call during his presentation titled ‘The Role of Capital Markets in Closing Financing Gaps for Climate Adaptation,’ delivered at the African Development Bank meeting recently.
Citing expert data, Agama stated that Africa, despite contributing less than four per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, bears more than 25 per cent of climate-related losses. He warned that the continent faces an annual climate adaptation financing shortfall of up to $100bn by 2030.
According to him, “The 2022 Africa Economic Outlook by the AfDB estimated that the continent needs around $500bn of climate finance by 2030. Africa will also need to invest more than $3 tn in mitigation and adaptation by 2030 to implement its Nationally Determined Contributions.”
Agama stressed that these figures go beyond statistics and reflect a growing divide between vulnerability and resilience. “They translate into lost livelihoods in the Sahel, vanishing fish stocks in the Gulf of Guinea, and more frequent flooding in Lagos and Nairobi,” he said.
Quoting the 2023 United Nations Environment Programme Adaptation Gap Report, he revealed that developing countries would require between $212bn and $387bn annually for adaptation by 2030.
“For Africa specifically, the gap is immense, estimated to be up to 50 times current funding levels,” he added.
The SEC boss urged project developers and private sector players to present bankable, pipeline-ready projects with strong environmental and social metrics. He said that African capital markets could play a key role in bridging the financing gap through market integration, the alignment of standards, and the adoption of the International Sustainability Standards Board framework.
“Closing the climate adaptation financing gap in Africa is not a distant aspiration but a development imperative, and one that demands our collective ingenuity and capital,” Agama said.
He recalled that in 2017, Nigeria launched its sovereign green bond — the first in sub-Saharan Africa — which was oversubscribed by 2.5 times, driven largely by Nigerian pension funds and diaspora investors. He said this demonstrated that local institutional capital could be mobilised for climate-focused projects when the right instruments and regulatory confidence are in place.
Agama also noted that the SEC represents Nigeria on the ISSB’s Adoption Readiness Working Group, which developed a roadmap for the adoption of IFRS S1 and S2 Sustainability Disclosure Standards. The roadmap outlines a phased implementation of early adoption, voluntary adoption from January 2024 to December 2026, and mandatory adoption starting January 2027.
He described the ISSB Standards as a “game-changer” and emphasised that Nigeria is already leading the way in innovating climate finance products and setting global benchmarks for sustainability disclosures.
Agama concluded by urging deeper regional market integration, harmonised ESG standards, and the use of tools like credit enhancements to de-risk early-stage climate investments.
“Let us seize this moment as regulators, investors, governments, standard-setters, and development partners to deepen African capital markets and finance the resilience of our continent and our people,” he added.
The PUNCH reported that the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Emomotimi Agama, has urged sector regulators, businesses, and stakeholders to embrace environmental social governance to achieve sustainable development goals.
