Sahara Group calls for increased climate finance for Africa at UNGA

At a United Nations General Assembly roundtable, Dr. Kola Adesina, Group Managing Director of Sahara Power Enterprise Group, called for increased mobilization of sustainable investment and climate finance to drive African development and economic resilience.

Adesina emphasized that Africa must expand its productive capacity through sustained investment in energy, infrastructure, industry, and agriculture to withstand environmental and geopolitical shocks. He noted that while global assets linked to sustainable investment strategies have reached $16.7 trillion, a significant gap remains for Africa. The continent requires approximately $277 billion annually to meet climate commitments, yet current climate-finance flows are roughly $30 billion per year.

Challenges include an annual infrastructure financing gap of between $68 billion and $108 billion and the fact that nearly 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity. Adesina highlighted that climate finance is essential for resilience, especially as African nations face increasing risks from droughts and floods despite contributing less than 4% of global greenhouse-gas emissions.