Climate fintech company launches green financial marketplace for investors

Igugu Global, a climate fintech company, has launched a green financial marketplace (GFM) to help portfolio managers overcome the challenges of seeking and benchmarking climate risk and climate-related investment opportunities across Africa.

The company explained in a statement on Wednesday that GFM was a benchmarking platform that offers consistently comparable climate data for financial players growing across sectors and multi-geographical portfolios in Africa.

Anele Makhwaza, founder of Igugu Global, said: “As regulators push for significant expansion and standardization of climate-related revelations, Igugu Global offers a market-leading solution to bridge the gap in Africa and accelerate capital flows to natural and sustainable infrastructure.”

Starting with 9 countries that account for more than half a billion Africans and 65 percent of the continent’s GDP, according to the climate firm, the platform standardizes more than 1,000 companies across sectors, their environmental risks revealed and their sustainable commitments, to e.g. TCFD, verified.

“Currently, less than 2 percent of African companies disclose climate exposure and financing, so Igugu Global data is a key step in evaluating the climate exposure of assets in a comparable way.

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“The green financial market has passed $ 1.6 trillion in bond issues, but only $ 5.4 billion has gone to Africa – the most vulnerable of the continents in light climate change. Regulation is scattered and inconsistent, but Igugu Global’s GFM solves this by consolidating debt and corporate revelations in one place, Makhwaza said.

Similarly, the founder revealed that unlike other capital market solutions, the company has aimed to facilitate the carbon transition by relieving current financial players and the costs of searching for climate-related investment pipelines, managing and revealing the portfolio’s climate finance commitments.

She said: “By being recorded for how and at what price Africa enters the market, financial players can use Igugu Global’s consensus and disclosure to monitor and circumvent opaque transition climate policies and identify flow of agreements.”

Meanwhile, she explained that promoting awareness and understanding of climate-related risks and sources of adaptation funding will help all African companies contribute to the transition to a low-carbon economy and to Africa’s climate goals, adding that growing companies can look forward to greater visibility and work with climate fintech platform.