Green bonds are fast becoming the rage across the continent. Tom Minney reports on recent developments in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta opened trading on the London Stock Exchange on 20 January to celebrate the first week of a dual-listed KES4.3bn ($42.7m) green bond medium-term note (MTN) programme on the LSEG international Securities Market.
The bond is issued by Acorn Holdings, a property developer, and will be used to finance building green-certified, clean, safe, and affordable accommodation for 5,000 students in Nairobi.
The bond, certified by the Climate Bonds Initiative, was first issued in Nairobi in October 2019 in a deal structured by Stanbic Bank Kenya and Guarantco, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group international consortium.
Kenya’s green bonds programme is backed by FSD Africa, Dutch development bank FMO, the Kenya Bankers Association, the Nairobi Securities Exchange and the Climate Bonds Initiative.
The notes are structured as a project bond and the programme is the first to achieve green certification in Kenya, ensuring it contributes to cutting carbon emissions. Rating agency Moody’s awarded a B1 rating to Acorn’s MTN programme, above Kenya’s sovereign rating of B2.
As global institutional investors switch decisively away from oil and gas and seek green investments, the green bonds revolution is sweeping across African stock exchanges and creating new opportunities for investment banks and project developers.
In February, Nigeria’s Access Bank was reported to seek an international listing on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange for its N15bn ($41.1m) green bond, although the bonds will not be traded there.
The bond was fully subscribed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange when it was listed in March 2019 after a book-build capital raising. It is a five-year bond paying a coupon rate of 15.50%. It has been certified by the Climate Bonds Initiative for meeting the required standards for a climate bond. Access Bank will use the funding for loans including projects for flood defence, solar generation and agriculture.
In October 2019 in Singapore, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, the largest listing global platform for green bonds, signed a Memorandum of Understanding covering promoting cross-listing and trading of green bonds in Nigeria and Luxembourg. Nigeria goes green
Nigeria’s Green Bond Market Development Programme also draws in the FMDQ OTC Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria and was launched in June 2018.Another Nigerian green bond, issued by North South Power Company Limited (NSP) in February […]
