In the words of former US President Barack Obama “We are constantly reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame, but rather how well we have loved and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better.”

The above words are very sobering and echo on going urgency for everyone to participate in greening our economies as well as our societies.

As capital markets we fully subscribe to the need of supporting our economies to remain sustainable. We acknowledge that huge investments are needed in order to achieve global climate and energy targets and carry out the digital transformation.

Quoting Ms Chritine Lagarde “while banks can and should provide a good share of this funding, capital markets can provide innovative tools to close the investment gap. Capital markets are better suited to financing projects with a defined purpose, directly linking investors to the impact they intend to achieve. And they are also better at drawing retail investors towards supporting transformative activities.”

In our quest to support the Zambian market to raise the first ever Green Bond we have been actively involved in supporting the development of the Green Bond Framework as well as been close to the drafted listing rules for Green Bonds.

Over the period the Association has actively worked along side key partners such as Securities and Exchange Commission of Zambia, BIOFIN Zambia and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in providing capacity building as well as developing a Green Bond Hub that will house different prospective issuers. We hope this will help us harness both the supply and demand side of the market and allow us to list our maiden Green Bond.

THE LOWER KAFUE LANDSCAPE FINANCE PLAN

The Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environment Protection in collaboration with the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) are developing Kafue Landscape Financing Plan as an intergral part of teh sustainable financing mechanism. The objective of the Lower Kafue Landscape Finance Plan is to define a collective vision to catalyse financial sustainability and investment in the water sector. The plan will provide the private sector with concrete opportunities for investment and support Government in mobilising additional resources towards reaching its development objectives and aspirations contained in the 7th National Development Plan and the Vision 2030 of ensuring sustainable Water Resources Management.

The Capital Markets Association of Zambia was among key stakeholders involved in the validation of the plan.