UKNIAF strengthens government agencies’ institutional capacity to plan capital programmes, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of infrastructure spend, and attract private financing for inclusive, climate-resilient, and pro-poor infrastructure projects. Together with the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning (FMFBNP), we identified a list of priority guidelines to guide this process and conducted a training program to support federal and subnational Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in understanding and using these guidelines and tools. Participating MDAs included the FMFBNP, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Debt Management Office, Bureau of Public Enterprise, and Rural Electrification Agency.
The training strengthened the capacity of MDAs in understanding their role in infrastructure delivery, exploring the concept of Building Back Better, Building Back Greener, as well as identifying, prioritising, and developing climate-resilient, inclusive, and pro-poor infrastructure through PPPs. The training also filled knowledge gaps regarding the development and delivery of climate-smart infrastructure and introduced participants to the concept of climate finance for this infrastructure.
Post the session, we got soundbites from some key contributors to understand the participants’ response during the training and how it affects the outcome of the exercise.
“How do you mainstream the climate finance component into infrastructure delivery?” – Gabriel Ekanem, Institutional Capacity Development Expert, quotes this question among others from the participant as an example of the enthusiasm and interest from the participants.
“We will now start applying the knowledge using the processes and tools that have been developed; tools of project screening, project planning and project development. The knowledge that we have gained now, we start applying with MDAs to ensure that we achieve climate-smart infrastructure PPPs in Nigeria.” – Gabriel Ekanem.
Gabriel Ekanem speaks on the Expectations from the ‘Climate Smart Infrastructure PPPs’ training:
“There is fresh thinking around the importance of mainstreaming climate considerations in project selection, development and implementation and optimism around the help that is available to help them make the transition.” – Gori Olusina Daniel, Component Lead, Infrastructure Finance, UKNIAF.
Gori Olusina Daniel speaks on How the training can help guide the MDAs’ thinking towards climate smart infrastructure in Nigeria.
