Tayari News
Finance Minister Henry Musasizi has highlighted weak project preparation is a major constraint to unlocking climate finance in East Africa, calling for stronger investment pipelines with clear financing needs, risk analysis, and implementation plans.
Musasizi made the remarks while opening the 8th East African Region Climate Finance Directors Level Meeting at Lake Victoria Serena Hotel, Kigo, under the theme “From Commitments to Investment: Scaling Bankable Climate Finance for NDC 3.0 Implementation in East Africa.
“Too many promising ideas reach financing discussions before feasibility work, safeguards, land arrangements, revenue assumptions and implementation responsibilities are clear,” said the Minister.
Musasizi also said the region must move beyond climate finance pledges and focus on converting commitments into investments that deliver tangible results for citizens.
“A commitment is valuable only when it translates to resources reaching the communities that need them,” he said.
Musasizi said climate finance should be viewed as part of the investment foundation for Uganda’s Tenfold Growth Strategy, which seeks to expand the economy to approximately $500 billion by 2040.He said Uganda’s priority growth areas: agro-industrialisation, tourism, mineral development, and science, technology and innovation, depend on reliable energy, resilient infrastructure, healthy ecosystems, productive land and a workforce protected from climate shocks.
“Climate action is therefore part of the investment foundation for sustained economic transformation,” he said.
The Minister called for stronger regional cooperation, particularly through the East African Community (EAC), to mobilise climate finance for cross-border programmes in clean power and grid interconnection, resilient transport, shared water basins, climate-smart agriculture and early warning systems.
Musasizi added that pooling demand, sharing technical preparation costs and aggregating similar investments across Partner States could create programmes at a scale capable of attracting capital.
Uganda has strengthened its climate finance framework through the National Climate Finance Strategy and National Green Taxonomy, which Musasizi said should now be translated into actual project selection, budgeting, financing and reporting.
He also called for better tracking of climate finance by distinguishing pledges from approvals, approvals from disbursements, and disbursements from results on the ground, proposing a regional scorecard to help Partner States identify bottlenecks and assess whether financing is reaching adaptation, local governments and vulnerable communities.