Ghana calls for greater private capital to finance climate investments
Story by: Regina Bless
Deputy Minister for Finance, Thomas Nyarko Ampem, has called for greater mobilisation of private capital to finance Ghana’s growing climate investment needs, stressing that public and concessional resources must be strategically used to attract additional investment into climate-related projects.
Speaking at the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Regional Dialogue for West and Central Africa in Accra, Mr. Nyarko Ampem said Ghana could no longer depend solely on public financing to meet the scale of investment required to address climate change while advancing sustainable economic development.
The four-day regional dialogue brings together government representatives, accredited entities and other stakeholders to deliberate on access to climate finance and emerging investment opportunities across West and Central Africa.
“Public finance cannot carry this agenda alone,” Mr. Nyarko Ampem said, pointing to competing demands on government resources, including education, healthcare, infrastructure, social protection and economic transformation.
He therefore called for a shift in approach, with public resources being used to unlock significantly larger pools of private capital.
“Our task is to use public resources to bring other engines on board,” he said.
According to the Deputy Minister, this means moving beyond simply financing projects towards actively mobilising capital. He said public and concessional resources could be used to develop bankable projects, reduce investment risks, improve commercial viability and provide appropriate guarantees capable of attracting private investors.
He further urged stakeholders to measure climate finance not only by the amount secured, but also by the additional investment generated from those resources.
“We must also ask how much additional investment can every dollar or cedi of climate finance mobilise?” he said.
He described the approach as a necessary transition “from disbursement to mobilisation, from expenditure to investment, and from climate finance to development finance.”
Mr. Nyarko Ampem disclosed that Ghana’s current GCF portfolio comprises 13 projects with approximately US$209 million in GCF financing, in addition to about US$5.7 million in approved readiness support.
“These initiatives demonstrate an important principle: Climate finance must not just protect the environment. It must also expand economic opportunity,” he said.
Director of the Africa Region at the Green Climate Fund, Catherine Koffman, commended Ghana’s leadership and stressed the importance of integrating climate finance into Africa’s broader economic transformation agenda.
She said Ghana had taken concrete steps to make climate finance a strategic component of its economic transformation efforts, citing the revised Climate Prosperity Plan and the Climate-Resilient Investment Platform as examples of initiatives designed to strengthen the institutional and economic framework for mobilising public, private and catalytic capital.
Ms. Koffman said the GCF had committed more than US$20 billion globally, with Africa receiving close to 40 per cent of the funding. She noted that US$2.9 billion had been committed to West and Central Africa through 80 projects and programmes expected to benefit millions of people.
She also highlighted that GCF Readiness support had invested more than US$250 million across Africa to strengthen countries’ capacity to access and utilise climate finance.
Ms. Koffman called on contributors, development partners and financial institutions to sustain the momentum and deliver an ambitious climate-finance outcome that reflects both the scale of the continent’s climate challenges and the economic opportunities available through the transition to resilient and sustainable development.
The discussions in Accra are expected to strengthen regional collaboration and identify practical ways to expand access to climate finance while creating stronger pathways for private-sector investment in climate-resilient development.