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Describe FC4S in 50 words or less:
FC4S Lagos was set up with a vision “to become Africa’s leading Financial Centre for Sustainability by 2030,” with Nigeria as the leading market in sustainability principles through investments, innovation, partnerships and capacity development in line with its core values of Innovation, Market Development, Partnership, Awareness, Credibility and Teamwork (IMPACT).
What is your organization/investment mandate?
Our mandate is to:
- Serve as an information repository for all green/sustainable finance related projects in Nigeria and Africa
- Connect bankable and impactful climate/sustainability-focused projects to finance
- Conduct capacity building and market sensitization/training programs to increase awareness and knowledge of the impacts of climate change/sustainability
- Provide a networking platform for key players in the Nigerian financial market ecosystem to support efforts aimed at achieving a climate-resilient and inclusive economy in Nigeria and beyond.
Has ``Circular Economy`` been included in your mandate? How is it being incorporated?
Circular Economy (CE) is important to our mandate of connecting bankable/impactful climate and sustainability focused projects to finance because of their climate mitigation potential and in terms of capacity building and market sensitisation/training programmes. We had a Circular Economy-focused webinar last year in partnership with PwC.
What are the key risks you see in developing circular businesses in Nigeria?
The key risks include a lack of understanding of the key concepts of CE and resistance to change by key stakeholders. This includes innovators, entrepreneurs, financers, policymakers and consumers. There is also a need for technology transfer from well-established countries in the practice of CE.
Access to finance to scale locally-developed innovative CE projects is also a major issue, especially as many CE-business models are early stage. There can also be a lack of incentives by policymakers to encourage local entrepreneurs
Finally, access to raw materials to enable continued and uninterrupted production (e.g. processers of plastic bottles often complain of a lack access to plastic because there is no organised collection system and a lack of market mechanism for the pricing and trading of plastics).