WITH the COP28 UAE- United Nations Climate Change Conference currently on, one is encouraged to see global leaders unite, unlock crucial funding, and accelerate ambitious climate action.
In South Africa, preceding the COP28 UAE, Nedbank Green Indaba was held to set up Green Economy Fund to the tune of R10 million, whose theme is ‘green is the new gold’.
The initial fund would aid 100 start-ups in the waste, water, energy and agricultural sectors – the 4 sectors targeted by Nedbank’s Green Economy Strategy to create sustainable jobs and build wealth while furthering the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
These are the same goals under scrutiny in Dubai, were ministers, presidents, activists and scientists are scratching their heads on what mitigating factors should be followed and how.
“Too many start-ups fail to last more than a year, and one of the main reasons is that they are not eligible to receive finance via conventional funding models. Our fund has been created specifically to provide this vital lifeline to enable more green-economy SMEs to survive until they are ready for conventional funding,” remarked Poovi Pillay- Executive Head of Corporate Social Investment at Nedbank at the launch.
He said Nedbank’s Green Economy Strategy aims to make substantial changes to the way in which the bank seeks to drive positive change in South Africa.
At the broadest level Africa is too dependent on aid and has a dramatically high youth unemployment rate. Contributing factors include the impact of climate change, escalating government debt and educational systems that are not fit for purpose.
“We have unacceptably high rates of stunted malnutrition: 27% in South Africa and 40% in Nigeria.
This means that we are raising huge numbers of people who are cognitively impaired and fit for nothing more than casual labour,” gravely pointed out Dr Frank Aswani, CEO of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA).
“We also need to recognise that conventional aid is reducing – this is a problem that we as Africans must solve.”
It’s going to be key to develop collaborative networks across the continent to change the investment mindset, making the upliftment of everybody a part of how we do business and not just a separate activity covered by corporate social investment,’ echoed Dr Aswani.
YouMeta App founder Nthabiseng Msingatha believes this platform affords them an opportunity to engage and pose questions such as, how to resolve such stumbling blocks and what measures would be implemented to make the fund reaches its intended recipients.
YouMeta App, was one of organisations invited to showcase their product offering at the Indaba.
What’s needed, argued Dr Aswani, is risk-based investment that will help social enterprises take their products or services to market successfully and pay a return, or investment that helps to create a market for the social enterprise’s goods.
Business needs to make these kinds of investment a priority because it is an investment in future customers and a way of realising the opportunities hidden by challenges.
Such investment needs to focus on providing funds where other funders will not venture in order to generate benefits that would otherwise not be delivered, says Dr Aswani.
Image (Poovi Pillay- Executive Head of Corporate Social Investment at Nedbank says ‘green is the new gold’).
