Earlier this week the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) signed an agreement with Vitol, an energy and commodity company, to develop projects focused on reducing or removing carbon emissions.
The vice president of Nigeria Yemi Osinbajo leads the initiative from Nigeria’s side and highlighted its potential during the signing ceremony by saying: “The importance of an enabling environment is crucial for Nigeria to play a global role in voluntary carbon markets. This is why I would like NSIA to take the lead in developing the first Nigeria Carbon Market Activation plan and look forward to engagement on the plan.”
The joint venture will be called CarbonVista and the two sides have committed a total of $50 million. Funding will be distributed between projects focused on climate-smart agriculture, green industrial technologies, waste management.
Michael Curran, Head of Environmental Products, Vitol said: “Vitol has been investing in high-quality carbon mitigating projects globally for over a decade, with a recent focus on sub-Saharan Africa. We are delighted to be partnering with NSIA to support Nigeria’s national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through projects that address critical environmental and climate threats.”
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The project will eventually be open to other investors, as it starts to scale its capacity. Vice president Osinbajo also highlighted the potential of the initiative to turn the Nigerian economy into a green, as well as the importance of making the country’s energy transition an equitable one.
Speaking about the continent as a whole, he also said that, “Africa can become the first truly green civilization – the first civilization on earth to use renewable fuel for purposes of a transformative economic journey.”
The announcement follows other voluntary carbon market development in Africa with Egypt working on its own market and Kenya attracting increased interest in its offset projects, alongside other countries on the continent.
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