Green Economy Imaginate, September 21st, 2022 (Port Harcourt, Golden Tulip, 1 pm)

Join us for the dialogue on the motivations, implications and means to ‘Catalyse the Green Economy’ for Nigeria.

When: September 21st, 2022.

Where: Port Harcourt (Rivers State). Golden Tulip, 1 pm.

Pre-register here.

Watch the recording (part 1, part 2) on our YouTube channel.

Key Imagine Nigeria message on ‘Catalyse the Green Economy’:
Fostering locally grown green solutions and industries will allow Nigeria to diversify its economy, improve its competitiveness, create jobs for its rapidly growing and youthful population, while responding to the global climate crisis.

Background:
‘…governments, international organisations, and businesses around the globe are not pushing for green growth only simply because of a genuine concern for the severe long-term consequences of overusing the world’s natural resources. The green economy is also critical to spurring new business opportunities, creating jobs for all kinds of workers, and saving businesses and governments money via the efficient use of energy and materialse.’

‘Going green is in the national interest of Nigeria and it is a strategic choice that, if fully pursued, could allow Nigeria to exploit an emerging global trend in its own favour. This is particularly important in light of the declining appetite to finance investments in fossil fuel projects. It has also been shown that the increasing costs of environmental crises are already undermining growth and that greener production processes can be applied to all production chains and companies of all sizes to generate cost reductions, since less inputs are required to produce the same output. Eco-innovative companies of all sizes grow, on average, at a rate of 15% a year and can capture market share in previously monopolistic markets, especially with regulatory changes that reduce the barriers of entry to eco-entrepreneurs. Additionally, by facilitating formalising and providing special benefits to those micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that adopt green processes and/or deliver green products and services, Nigeria can not only make its MSMEs and start-ups more efficient, but also increase their profits, commercial growth and even foreign market share — fostering what could be classified as a ‘green growth from below’ approach..’

Imagine Nigeria report, chapter 6.

Green Economy Imaginate is hosted by:

The Nigeria Climate Innovation Center (NCIC) is a product of the World Bank’s Climate Technology Program , aimed at establishing a network of Climate Innovation Centers (CICs) to combat climate crisis around the world especially in emerging and developing economies where the effects of climate change are most evident, from tree cutting serving as a fuel source to cook ,unstable and extreme weather patterns, to waste generation at an explosive rate among other factors all threatening the biodiversity of several ecosystems. There are currently 8 CICs in the world today in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Vietnam, Morocco, Caribbean, Ethiopia, and Nigeria.

Like the other CICs, The NCIC will offer seed financing, policy interventions, network linkages, and technical and business training to new enterprises in the climate change space.

The NCIC was launched in 2018 by the World Bank and supported by the Government of Nigeria (GoN) through the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to lead the growth of the Nigerian Green Economy. In achieving this mandate, NCIC has strategically positioned itself to work very closely with climate-smart entrepreneurs (or green entrepreneurs) that play within NCIC’s 4 thematic areas of focus namely: Renewable Energy, Waste management, Smart Agric and Water Solutions. However, NCIC plays very strongly in the circularity and sustainable business space  and has created solid footprints in that regard. The NCIC has created programs with the Republic of Finland and The Netherlands to promote circularity in Nigeria by working with some of the best minds in the entrepreneurial circular ecosystem.

In addition to the above , the NCIC has been very impactful  in providing incubation and acceleration services to scale climate-smart entrepreneurs tailored towards building capacity and providing green entrepreneurs with the requisite skills to thrive in their respective markets . The Center is positioned to  provide access to markets and finance majorly through grants and other forms of sustainable financing models. NCIC is also instrumental in providing market intelligence in the green space and proposing policy frameworks aimed at steering the country towards a greener and more sustainable future.

In the past two years of NCIC’s establishment, the Center has impacted over 450 businesses across its core thematic areas of focus ,creating  a balance of diversity to sustain the green ecosystem and building new value chains as well as unlocking potential opportunities in the Nigeria.