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Climate adaptation financing, risk-sharing vital for Africa’s farmers – Experts – EnviroNews
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Speakers at the Africa Inclusive Climate Finance Conference in Lagos on Thursday, September 3, 2026, identified climate adaptation financing, inclusive banking and risk-sharing as critical to protecting Africa’s farmers and businesses.
The conference was organised by LAPO Microfinance Bank (LAPO MfB) in partnership with the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI).
The conference, with the theme: “Connecting Finance, Opportunity & Impact: Advancing the Future of Inclusive Banking in Africa”, brought together banking and financial-sector leaders to examine financial inclusion, climate resilience, gender-smart finance and MSME development.
Kola Masha, Managing Director of Babban Gona, put the climate-adaptation financing opportunity for financial institutions across Africa at an estimated $200 billion.
Masha urged African financial institutions to move past perceived risks in agricultural lending and fund practical measures to help farmers adapt to climate change.
“The reason farmers are too risky to finance is that no one financed them,” he said.
He said Africa irrigated only about six per cent of its farmland, compared with about 37 per cent in Asia, stressing that adaptation financing could significantly reduce climate-related agricultural losses.
According to him, simple interventions such as using appropriate seeds, planting at the right time, irrigation and improving soil quality can substantially reduce the impact of climate shocks on farmers.
Masha said Babban Gona had cumulatively served more than 500,000 smallholder farmers, deployed over 250 million dollars in financing and recorded a 99 per cent repayment rate.
He said farmers who received financing for climate adaptation could remain sufficiently productive and profitable to repay their loans.
Peter Simon, Chief Executive Officer, WSBI, said more than 80 per cent of Nigerian farmers were smallholders and accounted for about 90 per cent of the country’s food production.
Simon said four out of five smallholder farmers were financially vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, making access to finance a major factor in their ability to adopt climate-smart practices.
He said WSBI and LAPO’s climate-adaptation credit pilot, supported by development partners, had reached about 20,000 smallholder farmers and 5,000 MSMEs.
He said the programme combined finance with capacity building, climate-risk assessment tools and lending approaches tailored to women smallholder farmers.
Simon called for more mobilisation of domestic capital, blended finance and responsible digital technology to ensure climate finance reached households, farmers and small businesses rather than being concentrated only on large infrastructure projects.
Ali-Amine Nejjar, WSBI Vice President and Africa Regional President, also said climate resilience, MSME financing and inclusive growth are linked.
Nejjar, also Chairman of the Management Board of Al Barid Bank, Morocco, said savings and retail banks were strategically positioned to support households and MSMEs because of their proximity to communities and understanding of local needs.
He urged African financial institutions to develop solutions suited to the continent’s realities rather than simply replicating models developed elsewhere.
Weselina Angelow, Director of Programmes, WSBI, said climate adaptation should be treated as a financing challenge requiring practical investments before droughts, floods and other climate shocks occurred.
Angelow said financial institutions could train their staff as climate-smart lending officers capable of identifying customers’ climate risks and financing affordable adaptation measures.
She also stressed the importance of using customer data to understand who applied for finance, who was rejected and why, as well as barriers preventing some women from applying.
Angela Omeiza, ESG Board Chairperson, LAPO MfB, said inclusive finance must also protect the assets and livelihoods built by people who received financing.
Omeiza said climate shocks could wipe out crops, livestock and other assets acquired with borrowed funds, making insurance, risk-sharing and other protection mechanisms important components of financial inclusion.
She said financial products should be designed around women’s actual realities instead of expecting women to fit into existing products.
Omeiza said financial institutions, insurers, development partners, government, technology companies, climate experts and investors needed to share risks to deepen inclusive climate finance.
She said digitalisation alone could not solve poor product design, stressing that “we cannot digitalise our way out of poor design.”
The conference concluded with a call for financial institutions, governments, regulators, development partners and the private sector to work together to scale climate finance and strengthen resilience for African households, farmers and businesses.
By Joy Oyerinde
