ODM leader Raila Odinga and Zamara Group CEO Sundeep Raichura have been appointed as Advisory Board members to the African Green Infrastructure Investment Bank (AfGIIB).
The announcement was made during the G-7 African Investor Summit held on the sidelines of the just completed G7 Summit in Cornwall.
Odinga and Raichura will be tasked with the mandate to champion and create a specialist green infrastructure investment platform to support the continent’s green transitions.
They will also be tasked with creating jobs, increasing the continent’s share of the industrial green global economy whilst at the same time delivering globally competitive risk-adjusted returns for its investors.
Odinga is the African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development and a former Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya.
On the other hand, Raichura is a diversified financial services group offering pensions, medical, insurance and actuarial services with a presence in six countries in Africa.
"I support initiatives of this type that catalyze more investments into infrastructure in Africa and more so support and accelerate Africa’s transition to a greener and more resilient economy," reads Odinga's response.
On his part, Raichura noted that sustainability in investments would be critical while working on the long term recovery in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The emerging need to reassess investment allocation by Kenyan pension funds presents an opportunity to revisit nature-based and sustainable solutions for more resilient physical infrastructure to mitigate climate change and physical risks,” Raichura added.
The African Green Infrastructure Investment Bank (AfGIIB) initiative is an African Union-convened, African institutional investor-led, global finance initiative, to catalyze private capital for Africa’s green transition, in the run-up to COP27 in Africa and beyond.
The advisory board will also serve as an influential green investment mobilization avenue for the continent, even as the continent prepares to host the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in 2022.
