Climate Change: NSIA, NCCC Partner On Nigeria’s Action Agenda

• Sign MoU for effective service delivery
• Authority unveils maiden Impact Report

BY COBHAM NSA – Focused on addressing climate risks in the country, two Federal Government agencies, the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to effectively drive the process.

Specifically, the MoU emphasizes the urgency of immediate and ambitious action to handle inherent climate risks as well as ensure the attainment of the shared objectives between both organisations going forward.

While the NSIA is the manager of Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, the NCCC is the country’s implementing entity for climate action.

By the MoU, the bodies are at liberty to further explore potential areas of collaboration such as the Development of a climate change framework to provide guidelines for regulating emissions in Nigeria; the Implementation of a carbon emissions trading mechanism in Nigeria; and the Management of a National Carbon Registry and a Climate Change Fund.

Speaking at the agreement signing event in Abuja on Monday, NSIA’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Aminu Umar-Sadiq stated that; “A core pillar of our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy is to actively build strategic partnerships with relevant organizations to support climate change actions and Nigeria’s energy transition ambitions of achieving net zero emissions by 2060.”

He said the agreement serves as one of the strategic steps being taken to meet the Authority’s social impact goals and sustainability commitments, adding that; “NSIA’s maiden Impact Report highlights the Authority’s development agenda and impact over several years of operations”.

Umar-Sadiq further explained that the Impact Report has also detailed the “Authority’s efforts to safeguard the environment and address relevant climate-related risks and opportunities in line with best practice.”

The NSIA Boss said because Nigeria is not immune to the adverse impact of climate change, the partnership with NCCC and other relevant stakeholders will not only be robust but also strengthened in terms of capacity building and resource mobilisation to promote Nigeria’s development in the areas of job creation, social welfare, and socio-economic growth.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Director General of NCCC, Dr Salisu Dahiru, described the partnership as “a bold signal to the global audience that the Government of Nigeria is serious about its climate commitments.”

According to him; “By committing resources from its Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) to support climate action and inclusive green economic growth, Nigeria is investing in its future, especially in a vastly decarbonizing world.

“This partnership between two of Nigeria’s flagship institutions is expected to catalyze private finance to accelerate Nigeria’s ambitious climate and national development agenda”.

Also applauding President Muhammadu Buhari’s transformational leadership in adopting executive ownership of Nigeria’s climate policies through the Climate Change Act of 2021, Dr Dahiru noted that this is further demonstrated through the establishment of the NCCC and the government’s commitment toward a net zero economy by the year 2060.

The NCCC Chief Executive urged Nigerians to embrace the opportunities offered by climate change to build a resilient economy and improve the adaptive capacities of our communities to extreme weather events, now and in the future.

As part of the MoU signing event, the NSIA officially unveiled its Impact Report (IR) to outline the progress made toward the attainment of its developmental and socio-economic impact as of 2021.

Meanwhile, selected highlights from NSIA 2021 Impact Report indicated the Authority’s intervention has led to the creation of over 500,000 direct and indirect jobs through various initiatives and projects; Support for over 230,000 farmers through various agri-projects across the country with over 68 percent of the primary beneficiaries being women; and Significant progress recorded on 3 high-priority national road projects which have a combined road length of 515.4km.

Other areas include; Setting standards in oncology (cancer) and diagnostics services in Nigeria with NSIA’s healthcare interventions through the medical centres of excellence located in Lagos, Kano, and Umuahia. The two diagnostics centres located in Kano and Umuahia have served nearly 300,000 patients while the cancer centre in Lagos held over 150,000 chemotherapy sessions to cater to cancer patients.

Similarly, the NSIA boasts of maintaining gender and ethnic pay equity while also achieving growth in the female workforce to roughly 36.3 percent of total full-time employees across grade levels; as well as commencing fieldwork on site of a 10MW solar farm in Kumbotso, Kano State (now completed in 2023) amongst other achievements.