Doing good, profitability and sustainability in Africa

How to manage risk, attract green finance and build a climate-resilient financial sector.

Pre-Summit Event

EBII African Leaders & Partners Forum 2023

The EBII Group is launching this forum on 12th June in Washington DC. Hosted in partnership the with the African Union

About the event

The 2023 AIRC Summit brings together leaders from the investment and financial community, government, policy making and entrepreneurs to discuss the big challenges and solutions linked to investing in Africa, as climate change and Environmental, Social and Governance dominate the agenda.

Catastrophic global weather events, from deadly floods in Nigeria to the worst droughts in four decades in the Horn of Africa and hurricanes in the US, have brought climate change into sharp focus. 

These natural disasters have damaged public health, forced millions to flee their homes and caused economic damage amounting to more than $650 billion globally over the last three years, or 0.28% of global GDP, according to Morgan Stanley.

In 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a universal call to action to end poverty and protect the planet – led to a renewed commitment to address global social, economic and environmental challenges and the Paris Climate Agreement gave the world a target to keep rises in global temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

But almost a decade later, the global outlook has dramatically deteriorated. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report issued a stark ‘final warning’ on the climate crisis: act now or it’s too late. 

Despite the current global economic turmoil, there is enough money to tackle this problem. Of $379 trillion of global financial assets under management, just 1% would be needed to achieve all of the SDGs and just 0.25% is needed to cover the climate adaptation gap, according to the OECD.

But, as “Africa’s COP” in Sharm El Sheikh revealed, Global North nations have yet to stump up hundreds of billions of dollars in annual climate aid.

While mitigation and adaptation are both vital parts of climate action,  the smart money is on adaptation where investments benefit our health, the planet and the economy. For every $1 invested in climate adaptation, investors could reap between $2-$10 of net economic benefit, according to the Global Commission on Adaptation. 

US and EU green subsidy plans

The US Inflation Reduction Act includes $500 billion in spending and tax breaks aimed at boosting clean energy, reducing healthcare costs and increasing tax revenues, while the EU responded with its Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA). It is hoped both will be a catalyst for climate action in developing countries by cutting the cost of wind, solar, batteries and technologies vital for decarbonisation.

For Africa, the problem is not so much the cost of solar panels or wind turbines, it is the cost of money, according to the African Climate Foundation. Sub-Saharan Africa needs access to affordable loans and financing to build renewables and develop clean-energy sources.

Shifting regulatory landscape in 2023

Meanwhile, the global regulatory landscape is also shifting – from mandatory US climate disclosure rules to EU sustainable disclosure updates and new “milestone” metrics proposed by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). The new rules mean greater transparency and more credible information to help stakeholders make more informed green choices and combat greenwashing. 2023 will be dominated by managing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risks.

ESG and Impact Investing

While Africa is still seen as high risk in the global investor community, partly due to historical governance challenges and a lack of reliable data, the continent offers huge potential to investors seeking both sound financial returns and positive social impact, from clean air projects to affordable housing and a more diverse workforce.

  • Developing nations accounted for nearly 60% of the US$715bn Global impact investing market in 2019, with Africa receiving more than a third of total investments.
  • Africa is the top recipient of impact investment in the Global South. 43% of investors had allocated funds to the continent and 52% planned to increase their portfolio over the next five years. (2020 Global Impact Investors Network survey). 

Creating an enabling environment for investors

To encourage investment and growth, Africa must create an enabling policy environment. Currently, coordination between stakeholders is lacking and ESG regulations, policy incentives and green financing products are unavailable in many parts of the continent. It is the shared responsibility of regulators, investors and financial institutions to create the right investment environment.

Entrepreneurship and Africa’s growth engine.

The continent boasts one of the youngest and most entrepreneurial populations on the planet. By 2050, Africa will be home to a quarter of the world’s population and female entrepreneurs will be a vital economic driver.

  • Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest rate of women involved in entrepreneurial activity. 58% of the self-employed population are female, contributing 13% of GDP. 
  • Women’s increased economic inclusion could add 10% to African GDP by 2025.

Changing Africa’s Narrative

The distorted view of Africa as a poverty-stricken continent hooked on foreign aid must also change. A shift in narrative to a continent embracing economic and regulatory reform, good governance, clean energy and regional integration is urgently needed.

EBII Africa IRC Summit

Watch the 2022 Summit Highlights

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The annual Africa Investment Risk and Compliance Summit (AIRCS), created in 2020, unites political and business leaders, academics and regulators to find coordinated solutions to Africa’s investment challenges. The EBII annual summits aim to: 

1. Refresh Africa’s narrative through strengthening compliance discipline, whilst helping to connect the continent’s businesses, systems and people to the world.
2. Enable creative thinking to support job creation and new innovative ways of doing business.

Over the last three years, the Summit has hosted key decision makers, including Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo; Sierra Leone’s President Julius Bio; US Congresswoman Rep. Ilhan Omar; Dr Mo Ibrahim and African Continental Free Trade Secretary General, H.E Wamkele Mene. The Summits have attracted over 5000 attendees from 80 countries and partnerships with global banks such as Afreximbank, Zenith Bank, Standard Chartered, Ecobank and media including BBC, CNN, CNBC, Sky News and tech giant Microsoft.

Proposed keynotes & panel topics

AIRC Summit 2023

September 2023 (TBC)
Registrations for the Africa Edition will be available soon

DAY 1: Panel 1 – Establishing a Climate Finance Infrastructure in Africa – Part 1 Alignment of Regulators in Africa on Sustainable Finance in building a climate resilient financial sector amidst the shifting landscape of ESG rules, green taxonomies and greenwashing.

The largest share of ESG and impact investing opportunities is in developing countries, especially Africa, but the continent lacks the standardised enabling policy and regulatory environment to encourage investment. For African companies, the perception of risk is greater, but if you manage risk better than your global peers, you will stand out. This panel discusses how African regulators and policy makers can develop policies and reform regulations for a climate-resilient financial sector.

African Success Stories

Case study 1: 

How strong ESG reporting helped seal Africa’s biggest ever renewable energy deal. The $1.5 billion sale of African wind power producer Lekela to Infinity Power, a joint venture between Egypt’s Infinity and UAE’s Masdar, has established Lekela as a global sustainability leader. 

DAY 1: Panel 2 – Establishing a Climate Finance Infrastructure in Africa – Part 2 Creating Africa’s Green Taxonomy – The challenges and why it is urgent.

This forward thinking panel will discuss immediate actions to be taken in creating an African Green Taxonomy, which aligns the whole continent in addressing the climate issue and the role of the different stakeholders. We aim to get commitment and timelines agreed at the end of this discussion.

  1. Challenges/Obstacles of a one size fits all for Africa. 
    1. Tailoring the taxonomy to individual nations
    2. Investment – Increasingly, investment funds are required to conform to “Green Taxonomies”, that is, investment by institutions in G20 countries can only be supported by banks, if the investment activity conforms to either the national or supranational Green Taxonomy, e.g. the EU Green Taxonomy.
  2. Chronic Physical Risks – G20 countries are now asking their banks to forecast (primarily credit) risks faced to their loan portfolios as a result of climate changes.

The magnitude of the financial risks from climate-related factors will depend on future scenarios that will, at least in part, be determined by actions taken today. A ‘too little, too late’ scenario, where action is taken, but too late to achieve climate goals, could result in the most severe financial risks in the banking and insurance sectors. Financial risks from climate change will be minimised if there is an orderly market transition to a low-carbon world, but the window for an orderly transition is closing.


As a consequence, long-term forecasts about Africa’s ability to cope with chronic physical risks of climate change, such as flood, drought and the expansion of the Sahara, over the next 30 years are already being built into models in G20 countries to determine the credit-worthiness and ability to repay loans.

Africa must be able to address the potential decline in credit availability as a result of forecasts of chronic physical risks and consider the forward-looking indicators being built into the climate-related risk models. Failure to understand and provide assurances over the climate-related financial risk concerns of G20 lenders may result in forecast models downgrading African borrowing opportunities and risk premiums significantly beyond current levels. 

DAY 1: Panel 3: Establishing a Climate Finance Infrastructure in Africa – Part 3 Carbon Credits Market in Africa and protection of national assets.

The new Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), launched at CO27, is a bold ambition for the continent—to reach 300 million credits produced annually by 2030. This production level is set to unlock $6 billion in income and support 30 million jobs. 

Could carbon offsets in Africa help cut emissions or is the system another tool for greenwashing? And how do you ensure that Africa’s Carbon Credits Market is not exploited by foreign companies that have a big carbon footprint?

This panel will explore the continent’s carbon market. Weighing up the opportunities, such as unlocking billions in green funding for African economies, expanding energy access, creating jobs, protecting biodiversity and driving climate action, and the challenges, such as protecting Africa’s national assets from exploitation by foreign companies.

DAY 1: Matchmaking Afternoon. A focus on business opportunities and matchmaking investors with adaptation projects.

DAY 2: Panel 4 – Climate adaptation solutions – Finding sources of funding and investment and closing the gap between adaptation costs and available finance.

The smart money is on adaptation where investments benefit our health, the planet and the economy. But adaptation funds fall short, and the gap between adaptation costs and allocated finance is widening. This panel aims to unpack the available funding sources – from international organisations, regional and national  banks, governments, sovereign wealth funds and private organisations. The session also showcases African success stories, showing how smart adaptation initiatives are addressing Africa’s most urgent issues from food security to water scarcity.

African Success Stories

Case study 1: 

Climate-Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security  –   Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and African Development Bank (ADB). 

Eg. Winners of the Empowering Youth through Jobs and Entrepreneurship (YouthADAPT) competition eg. Maryanne Gichanga, Kenya – Agritech Analytics, uses satellite data analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to halt and reverse soil degradation, pests and diseases OR Moataz Yousry, Egypt – VOLTX for Engineering & Industries, a smart crop irrigation system that saves up to 40% of water.

DAY 2: Panel 5 – Africa’s digital ecosystem: The role of innovation and the role of women in spurring sustainable economic growth.

This panel will discuss how Africa’s digital ecosystem is central to the continent’s development and,  with Sub-Saharan Africa home to the world’s highest number of women entrepreneurs, how female-led enterprises can drive sustainable economic growth. The panel will also explore how international investors can benefit from Africa’s digital transformation, with a focus on the Digital Transformation with Africa (DTA) initiative of the Biden-Harris Administration.

DAY 2 – Matchmaking Afternoon. A focus on business opportunities and matchmaking investors with adaptation projects.

A focus on business opportunities and matchmaking investors with adaptation projects.

Registrations for the Africa Edition will be available soon
Pre-Summit Event

EBII African Leaders & Partners Forum 2023

The EBII Group is launching this forum on 12th June in Washington DC. Hosted in partnership the with the African Union

Audience

2023 Africa IRC Summit Target audience

Financial institutions, investors, regulators, and the African diaspora are the intended audience for the event.

World Bank, IMF, EU, UNESCO

African financial institutions

Commercial, investment and development banks

Central Banks

Heads of State, government leaders and Finance Ministers

Impact investors

Tech firms

Media

Money deposit banks

Regulators

African diaspora community

Attendance

Register today

$250.00

Regular Attendance

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What's included?

$500.00

Premium Attendance

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What's included?

$50.00

Virtual Attendance

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What's included?

Our Sponsors

More sponsors to be announced soon. Interested in becoming a sponsor?

EBII Group

Buxton Court, 3 West Way,
Oxford OX2 OJB
United Kingdom

Get in touch

Any questions?

If you’re interested in sponsoring the event or seeking more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.

Summit Project Manager

Ololade Ogunsanya

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