Climate finance: Nigeria could lose 30% GDP by 2050
By Providence Ayanfeoluwa & Glory Bassey
Stakeholders have said that Nigeria could lose as much as 30 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, GDP, by 2050 without an adequate climate action.
This position comes at the backdrop of the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) estimates of a substantial gap which shows that Nigeria mobilised approximately $2.5 billion in climate finance in 2021 and 2022 against an estimated annual requirement of $29.7 billion.
Speaking in his welcome address, at the Stanbic IBTC Holdings Sustainable Finance Summit 3.0, Chief Executive of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Chuma Nwokocha, said the summit launched three years ago aimed to complete the stakeholders’ objectives of shaping Nigeria’s sustainable finance ecosystem, adding that since then sustainable finance has moved from good margins to mainstream.
He added that sustainable finance is good business because it creates long-term value for people, communities, businesses, and economy, saying: “Let’s come up with Nigerian solutions, Nigerian innovations to the issue of sustainable financing”.
He stated further: “For Nigeria, sustainable development and growth are inseparable. A just transition must not only reduce vulnerabilities, it must also improve life, create opportunities, expand economic participation, and unlock prosperity at scale”.
Also Head of Faculty, Prof. Bongo Adi, who represented Dean of Lagos Business School, Prof. Olayinka David-West, described Nigeria’s $27.4 billion climate finance deficit as a substantial gap, saying that financing a just transition requires: “us to look keenly at the entire ecosystem architecture with a view to restructuring it for the good of our people, our planet, and the profitability of the ecosystem because people, policy, and prosperity matter and capital connects all three”.
On his part, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Climate Finance, Ibrahim Shelleng, said that sustainable finance is no longer being treated as a peripheral environmental issue.
He said: “It is increasingly recognised as an instrument for economic diversification, infrastructure development, energy security, food security, industrial competitiveness, and job creation.”
Shelleng pointed out that without adequate climate action, Nigeria could lose as much as 30 percent of its GDP by 2050.
“And I want to reiterate that 30 percent of the GDP is currently hovering around four percent. Nigeria’s energy transition plan estimates that approximately $1.9 trillion will be required to achieve net zero by 2060; while our current national climate ambitions indicate an investment requirement of approximately $337 billion by 2035 across mitigation; adaptation; and enabling sectors.
“These figures explain why the federal government is approaching climate action not simply as an environmental obligation but as a central component of national economic planning. The government is building the policy, regulatory, and institutional frameworks required to convert Nigeria’s climate ambitions into investment opportunities”.