Green bonds funded projects on cards

A NUMBER of projects to be financed through green bonds have been lined up in Zambia and are expected to be carried out within the first quarter of next year by various investors.

This is according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chief Executive Officer Mr Phillip Chitalu, who is hopeful that a number of these projects would be executed during the first quarter of 2023.

“We have the guidelines for the green bonds in place and we have a lot of exciting Zambian projects that we are looking at, that we hope we can carry out within the first quarter of next year.

“Raising funds through bonds takes a lot of time so we hope that within the first quarter, either we have somebody putting up a solar plant or hydroelectricity or anything that is linked to green finance,” Mr Chitalu said in an interview.

Mr Chitalu pointed out that SEC had at least four people it was currently talking to that were likely to come to the market soon.

He noted that SEC depended on the market to champion and structure the products as it was only a regulator which approved the products to be rolled out on the market.

“In addition within December, I strongly believe that the capital market master plan will be launched. Remember it was approved by cabinet and within the plan some of the things we have been talking about such as long terms financial will be discussed,” Mr Chitalu said.

Meanwhile, Mr Chitalu mentioned that SEC was alert over the practice of greenwashing by players in the green projects.

He explained that SEC suspected that greenwashing was there in Zambia much as the country had not yet raised any green bonds.

“One of the big issues is greenwashing which is more less like money laundering where you get money for a green project but then you go and use it for something else.

“So we need to have experts that can actually see to it that there is no greenwashing, meaning the money that are raised end up in the green projects,” Mr Chitalu said.