Investing into the green economy of Africa for development – ESI-Africa.com

The current attention on directing finance and investment into Africa is creating huge opportunities for people and planet
Image: A session on the future of African cities at AGES.Source: ESI Africa.
Sanlam Investments CEO Carl Roothman reminded Africa’s Green Economy Summit (AGES) attendees on day two that the current economic climate, which sees so many governments and businesses focus on climate change and green finance, presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Africa. 
“I don’t think you will see in another 150 years the opportunity for access to the global capital and enthusiasm from the rest of the world, to invest in Africa,” said Roothman, opening a keynote address on day two of AGES. 
This enthusiasm, though, does create a responsibility for everyone in South Africa, he admonished. 

“My biggest fear is that we are not thinking big enough. We are not thinking at scale. 
“It’s nice that we have a variance of entrepreneurial small businesses pitching here [at AGES] but the range of having billions of dollars coming into the continent, that’s a big opportunity.  
“We need to start thinking of the impact we have in Africa.
“We as Africans need to take responsibility and build big projects. Think large, make a difference to the African economy,” said Roothman.
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On day one, Abel Sakhau, Chief Sustainability Officer, Sanlam Group, SA reminded people that the point of attending AGES is to try and advance South Africa’s green and blue revolution in terms of sustainability. 
“We must be aware of the beneficiaries of the work we want to do – they are not in the room,” said Sakhau.
At a time that the concept of ESG is highly contested, Sakhau said his sustainability team had recently questioned whether they needed to change the language of some of their plans, but they ultimately decided they were on the right path. 
“There’s confidence in Sanlam’s collaboration with AGES 2025, it goes beyond rhetoric. We are not scared of what people say.
“Africa needs us sitting in this room to make sure we advance and solidify the impact we need to have in terms of the green and blue economies,” said Sakhau.
“Of the 27 countries we operate in, on this continent, 17 are coastal countries. We look at the blue economy space on the continent; it’s underdeveloped. We only visit them for tourism, but there’s so much we can unlock in that space. 
“When we deliberate and look at the projects seeking capital investment, we must support them because we understand the vision behind the projects,” said Sakhau.
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Barbara Buchner, Global Manager for Climate Policy Initiative, US, agreed with Sakhau on day one that “the innovation coming out of Africa is amazing”. She stressed that it just needs support.  
She repeated a refrain on everyone’s mind – that Africa may contribute less than 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, but the continent bears a disproportionate burden of the effects of climate change. 
“Climate change is not a distant threat but a present crisis reshaping economies,” said Buchner. 
Still, she believes that challenges create opportunities for the green economy of Africa, which in this case is the opportunity to mobilise finance at scale to unlock sustainable development and enhance resilience and drive an inclusive transformation.  
Their research shows that while an all-time high of $44.2 billion of investment was tracked as coming into Africa in 2022, a 50% increase on the year before, that is still less than what is needed. 
“Current finance is less than a quarter of what is needed to meet sustainable development goals,” said Buchner. 
According to the Climate Policy Initiative, barriers impeding the scale of financing into Africa are: 
Buchner said the numbers show that only 18% of climate financing coming in Africa comes from the private sector, which is the lowest percentage when compared to other regions of the world. 
“That needs to increase to close the financial gap that we see,” she explained. 

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