President William Ruto Friday urged African commercial and development finance banks to dedicate more financial resources towards the continent’s green and environmentally friendly industrialisation.
He said at a time of competitive and volatile geo-economic landscape and reconfiguration of global trade policies, Africa needs to look inward to its financial institutions for solutions to address climate change and accelerate development.
“In this fractured world order, Africa must rethink its strategies and explore how to strengthen and leverage its own institutions to compensate for the shortfall in external investment,” he said at State House, Nairobi, on Friday.
He made the remarks during a high-level consultative meeting on the Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative (AGII), which he convened in his capacity as chair of the Committee of African Union Heads of State and Government on Climate Change.
Participants included Prof Pierre Moukoko, head of African Union Reform Implementation Unit, who represented the African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
Others were Africa Continental Free Trade Area Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, Africa50 CEO Alain Ebobissé, Executive Vice-President at Africa-Import Bank Haytham Elmaayergi and Equity Bank Group Managing Director and CEO James Mwangi.
Also at the meeting were Kenya Commercial Bank Group CEO Paul Russo, Standard Bank CEO Joshua Oigara, Ecobank Transnational Group CEO Jeremy Awori, Africa Finance Corporation Director and Head of Metals and Mining Investments Frankline Edochie and East Africa Regional Development Director-General at AfDB Director-General Alex Mubiru.
AGII was first conceptualised at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit held in Nairobi in September 2023.
It was subsequently launched at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and has since been fully endorsed and adopted by the African Union Assembly of Heads State in February 2025.
Ruto pointed out that Africa is not lacking in initiatives on industrialisation, development or climate action, but tangible results in addressing these issues were elusive.
“Africa faces the dual challenge of enhancing resilience to climate shocks while operating within limited fiscal space even as we pursue the imperatives of industrialisation and economic growth,” he said.
He juxtaposed the continent’s huge population and vast resources against limited resources compared to the industrialised world and China’s phenomenal development in renewable energy in recent years.
“While our population rivals that of China, our installed renewable energy capacity is a mere 67GW in stark contrast to China’s over 1,400GW,” he said.
He called for a policy shift to underpin Africa’s private sector investment in green industrialisation.
“I want to encourage commercial and development banks not only to be participants, but also catalysts in this field. You already have a significant footprint in green space investment,” he said.
He called on the commercial and development finance banks, public and private sectors to collaborate and identify bankable green projects in Africa and make them investment-ready.
“Believe in yourselves and believe in your continent. Find innovative solutions, leverage on economies of scale and eliminate barriers to trade,” he said.
He cautioned African commercial and development banks against profiling the continent as risky at international forums, saying such negative stereotypes only hold the continent back.
The leaders of commercial and development finance banks present commended the initiative, saying their institutions are well-aligned to financing green and environmentally friendly programmes and projects.
On the government side were Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi (Energy), Lee Kinyanjui (Investments and Trade) and Rebecca Miano (Tourism and Wildlife).
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