Why W/Africa has ‘minimal’ access to Green Climate Fund – Minister

The Minister of Environment, Hajiya Amina Mohammed, has said access to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) remains “minimal” in the West African sub-region due to low institutional capacity to scale accreditation hurdles.
 Amina spoke in Abuja at the opening ceremony of a regional training workshop aimed at enhancing the engagement of ECOWAS member states with the GCF to better harness the range of opportunity offered by the fund.
 According to the minister, Nigeria and other African countries participated in the negotiations and supported the establishment of the global climate finance architectural structures of the GCF to finance both adaption and mitigation projects.
 It was noted that challenges such as low institutional capacity, convoluted access modalities, understanding and aligning the working relations of national implementing entities with the government’s project approval process, among others, were hindering West Africa’s access to the fund.
 The minister, however, said that Nigeria was pursuing “Readiness Plan” with the GCF to enhance the country’s capacity to be able to access and benefit from the fund.
 “We assure that the sub-region will continue to positively engage in the global multilateral climate change processes towards adequate, predictable funding to developing countries to contribute to the ultimate objective of the convention,” she said.