The Federal Government and the Economic Community of West State (ECOWAS) have decried poor access to climate finance in West Africa.
They said despite the laudable structures for the implementation entities of Adaptation Fund (AF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF), access to the fund has remained low in the sub-region.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Mrs. Fatima Mede, in her remarks at the opening of a three-day regional workshop and capacity-building on access to climate finance in West Africa, said the challenges of inaccessibility of such funds could be due to low institutional capacity to scale through accreditation, among others.
The event was organised by the ECOWAS commission in collaboration with Adaptation Funds Board (AFB) and Heinrich Boell Stiftung (HBS).
“Conditional access modalities, low institutional capacity to scale through accreditation, understanding and aligning the working relations of national implementing entities with the government’s project approval process; procurement policy, fund disbursement policy and process, as well as issues of environment social safeguards and management plan, are some of these constraints.
“Accessibility to these funds remains an issue, not only due to some conditions associated with such funds, but also due to lack of capacity in preparing implementable projects,” Mrs. Mede said.
She maintained that developing countries need international assistance and resources to support adaptation in the context of national planning for sustainable development, capacity building and transfer of technology.
The permanent secretary noted that the scourge resulting from the impact of climate change in Africa and especially in West Africa was further worsened by the poor state of economic development and low adaptive capacity.
Mede added that the Federal Government was in support of ongoing efforts to establish potential linkages and synergy between the Adaptation Fund (AF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).