SEO Riders
– Nigeria Receives Just 4% of Required Climate Finance
– Tracking Budgets Could Empower Local Adaptation
– Report Proposes Climate Finance Hub and Grant-Based Funding
A new report—“The State of Climate Finance in Nigeria”, produced by Oxfam in collaboration with Connected Development (CODE) and INKA Consult—reveals that Nigeria receives only around 4% of the estimated $17.7 billion necessary each year to address climate risks such as droughts, floods, and erosion. Significantly, 75% of funds received between 2015 and 2021 were loans, contributing to fiscal strain as Nigeria’s debt obligations rise to nearly 36% of total national debt and consume over 37% of its federal budget. Experts argue that without transparent tracking of climate allocations—especially to frontline communities—the most vulnerable segments of society will continue to bear the brunt with limited adaptive capacity.
The report calls for urgent reforms focused on grant-based financing to reduce reliance on debt, and proposes the creation of a Climate Finance Hub to centralize tracking and management of climate-related funds. It also recommends integrating climate initiatives into national and subnational budget frameworks—commonly known as climate budget tagging—and building the capacity of local governments to access funds and implement resilience projects. Empowering grassroots communities through transparent data sharing, accountability platforms, and collaborative decision-making is seen as critical to reversing Nigeria’s climate-vulnerability trajectory.
