Osinbajo to speak at green bonds investor conference in Lagos

21 Feb 2017

Summary

The conference will take place on Thursday, February 23rd at the Stock Exchange House in Lagos.

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is scheduled to deliver a keynote presentation at Nigeria’s first-ever Green Bonds Capital Market and Investors Conference scheduled to hold in Lagos, according to a statement released by the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Osinbajo, who is currently the Acting President, will deliver his speech to investors attending the conference, themed “Green Bonds: Investing in Nigeria’s Sustainable Development.” The conference – to be held on Thursday, February 23rd – is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Environment in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Finance and Debt Management Office. The event will hold at the Stock Exchange House in Lagos.

Amina Mohammed, the outgoing Minister of Environment, said the investors conference for Nigeria’s maiden green bond issuance presents a great opportunity to develop the country’s green bonds market.

“The conference presents a huge opportunity to discuss next step in the diversification of our economy and it will bring together institutional investors, banking finance and young social entrepreneurs that will ensure this initial bond launch is a success enabling the development of a green bond market while building our national climate finance capabilities,” said Mohammed, who will assume her role as the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations in March.

The Sovereign Green Bonds project is part of the federal government’s plan to secure alternative funding options to fund the budget deficit. Nigeria’s first green bond issuance will be the first-ever sovereign issuance in an emerging market.

A green bond issuance will help Nigeria tap into the growing global market for green bonds, which comprised $576 billion of unlabeled climate-aligned bonds and $118 billion of labeled green bonds as of 2016, according to London-based Climate Bonds Initiative.

“A sovereign green bond represents a new stage in development of Nigerian capital markets and opens the way for further corporate issuance and international investment,” said Oscar Onyema, NSE’s CEO. “The NSE is playing a key role to help develop this enormous opportunity for Nigeria and fulfill one of our key objectives as a member of the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative.”

The Green Bonds conference is sponsored by the NSE, Citi Bank, Chapel Hill Denham and Climate Bonds Initiative. The World Bank, the UK’s Department for International Development and Ernst & Young are also playing active roles, the NSE said.


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