Nigeria to Access $10m UN Climate Change Fund

Nigeria is close to accessing the $10m United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change adaptation fund, the Federal Government has said.

The Adaptation Fund was established in 2001 with the aim of financing adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are parties to the Kyoto Protocol and are vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.

In assessing the fund, the benefiting countries, among other requirements, are expected to nominate a designated implementing authority.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting between the Federal Ministry of Environment and key development partners of UNFCCC, led by the World Bank and UNIDO in Abuja on Tuesday, the Deputy Director, Department of Climate Change, FME, Mr. Ricky Tarfa, said the Federal Government had fulfilled one of the basic requirements to benefit from the fund.

The requirement, according to Tarfa, was the nomination of the Bank of Industry as the country’s National Implementing Entity.

He stated that with the fulfilment of the NIE requirement, Nigeria’s application was now before the accreditation panel of the UNFCCC for processing.

Tarfa said, “In accessing the adaptation fund, there are procedures. One of the procedures is to put in place a National Implementing Entity and we have nominated Bank of Industry.

“And getting an NIE is not an easy task because of the fiduciary standards and other requirements around it. They want an institution that has the capacity to manage international funds. We did a scoping exercise that was supported by DFID for us to arrive at BOI. For now the application is before the accreditation panel.”

Asked to state the expected amount Nigeria could access from the adaptation fund, Tarfa said the sum that could be drawn by any benefitting nation had been pegged at $10m per project.

Speaking during the meeting proper, the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam, sought the financial and technical support of the development partners on key areas of the environment.

Some of the identified areas include development of National Policy Framework on Pollution Management, operationalisation of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory System and establishment of Drought Early Warning System for eight front line states.

A representative of the World Bank’s Country Director, Mr. Amos Abu, said the bank would assist Nigeria in its prioritised areas.

He said the World Bank had been assisting Nigeria on a number of projects in the areas of climate change and other environmental challenges and would not relent.

Source: Punch Newspaper March 2, 2015