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The Catalysing Climate Resilience (CCR) programme, funded by the FCDO and managed by FSD Africa, aims to build climate resilience in Africa through a three-part strategy: seeding new solutions via the Triggering Exponential Climate Action (TECA) venture launcher, accelerating growth through the Catalyst Fund, and developing the broader innovation ecosystem. The programme focuses on products and services that enable vulnerable households and businesses to adapt to climate change. Reported outcomes include the support of 70 start-ups, the creation or protection of 2,164 jobs, and the mobilisation of $11 million in public and private finance for resilience solutions.

FSD Africa co-funded the incubation and subsequent growth of the Digital Frontiers Institute (DFI) between 2016 and 2022. This support facilitated the training of over 3,500 professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa, the development of 26 digital financial services (DFS) courses, and the establishment of 10 registered professional country digital finance associations in Africa. Key achievements include a 78% increase in institutional capacity for DFS regulation in Sub-Saharan Africa and the creation of the Alliance for Digital Finance Associations (ADFA) in 2021.

The project, implemented by Strategic Impact Advisors (SIA), began with a landscape survey of delivery mechanisms and mobile financial services in Nigeria, resulting in a May 2021 report and implementation roadmap. Phase II involves developing four concept notes—focused on community savings groups, payment segmentation for government and humanitarian flows, and foundational ID ecosystems—to drive the adoption of digital wallets in an open-loop payment ecosystem.

The document outlines a collaboration between the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Strategic Impact Advisors (SIA), supported by FSD Africa, to assess digital connectivity and financial service provider mapping in Sudan. The project aims to identify barriers and opportunities for providing digital financial products to hard-to-reach displaced communities in West Darfur and White Nile, leading to a pilot project for digital payments.

The FDP Programme, funded by the FCDO between 2017 and 2022, aims to provide financial inclusion for over 300,000 refugees and forcibly displaced persons in Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC. By March 2022, the programme had facilitated over 26,300 customers accessing loans, with 73% being female, and processed UGX 10.8 billion in payments through Equity Bank Uganda in the first quarter of 2022.

CGAP and FSD Africa are collaborating to create a conceptual framework and research methodology to examine the nexus between climate and financial inclusion. The project aims to provide guidance to financial inclusion stakeholders on using financial services to reduce the impact of climate risks for vulnerable populations. This framework is currently being tested in Nigeria, with plans for CGAP to extend the research to at least one additional country. Current progress includes the development of a draft conceptual framework and the hiring of a research firm.

The Neo Insurers Training Initiative (NITI) in Nigeria, supported by IFC, focuses on training incumbent insurance companies to implement digital solutions and innovation hubs. The program involves two selected companies validating Insurtech models for agriculture and health insurance products and contributing to the review of the NAICOM regulatory sandbox.

BimaLab West Africa is an initiative supported by FSD Africa and hosted by insurance regulators to create an Insurtech ecosystem. The program aims to extend insurance access to underserved communities, provide regulatory support for innovators, and bridge the protection gap. Between 2021 and 2022, the program accelerated 20 insurtechs and saw 20 solutions pitched to investors, with three winners receiving £51,000 from GIZ.

The Digital Financial Innovation Platform is a 'one-stop innovation shop' designed to support the development of scalable and regionally replicable insurtech use cases in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project includes a digital BimaLab incubation program to connect startups with regulators, investors, and incumbents. The initiative aims to create economic opportunities and address fragility by prioritizing insurance products based on social impact and commercial scalability.

The Geothermal Risk Transfer Facility aims to catalyse private investment in African green energy by establishing a joint underwriting facility backed by local insurers to cover early-stage geothermal drilling risks. In Kenya, four insurance companies (Sanlam, APA, ICEA Lion, and Mayfair) have committed as founding members, and engagement with the regulator is positive. In Ethiopia, the programme has engaged with 13 of 18 insurance companies and plans a gap analysis with the national regulator.

FSD Africa is assisting the Lagos State Government (LASG) to address inadequate flood risk management by integrating private financial sector instruments into disaster risk reduction and financing. The initiative focuses on creating a Flood Resilience Finance Framework and Policy and supporting specific financial transactions for resilient infrastructure and risk transfer. The program aims to benefit 500,000 people with increased climate resilience and 50,000 people with improved employment opportunities, while attracting commercial capital for infrastructure and climate risk underwriting.

FSD Africa is providing technical assistance to Nigeria's National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to improve its regulatory and supervisory frameworks. The project focuses on promoting insurance market innovation and developing a risk-based capital (RBC) framework to align with international standards. Key deliverables include a diagnostic report, a legal framework report, and the review of regulatory sandbox and web accelerator regulations, alongside ongoing capacity building through RBC working sessions.

The Pharm Access Project, funded by FCDO and implemented by FSD Africa and PharmAccess, aims to strengthen the data analysis capabilities of Ghana's National Health Insurance Agency (NHIA). The project focuses on improving health finance systems and supporting Ghana's roadmap for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through better operational data and provider/payer relationships.

The project focuses on integrating African perspectives into the TNFD framework through three workstreams: developing academic justifications for natural capital protection, piloting the TNFD framework with African financial institutions, and launching the African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA). Initial efforts have included quantifying the impact of nature on loan book values to understand how physical and transition risks affect profits, noting that 23% of Africa's GDP depends on nature.

The Risk, Resilience and Regulatory Lab (R3LAB) is a collaborative platform for African insurance regulators aimed at improving supervisory skills and fostering innovation. It provides capacity-building programs, peer exchange, and learning toolkits to address regulatory gaps. A key output includes 'insurance innovation portraits' for eight countries, which identify barriers to innovation and propose action plans based on six assessment areas, including infrastructure, finance, and the regulatory environment.

In 2019/2020, Nigeria received an average of USD 1.9 billion annually in climate finance, representing only 11% of the USD 17.7 billion needed to meet its conditional NDC target. Public finance dominated the landscape, accounting for 77% of flows, primarily through concessional debt. Mitigation finance (USD 1.1 billion) outweighed adaptation finance (USD 663 million), despite the country's high vulnerability to climate risks. Energy systems received the largest share of investment (41%), with a strong focus on solar technologies, while sectors like waste and industrial processes remained severely underfunded. The report highlights a significant contradiction between climate finance goals and continued heavy investment in fossil fuels, noting that a single LNG project received USD 2.77 billion—more than the total tracked climate finance for the period.

The report identifies a significant gap between the climate goals of WAEMU member states and their financial capacity to implement them. While there is interest in green bonds, the market is hindered by underdeveloped regional financial infrastructure, a lack of technical expertise in green eligibility and reporting, and a dominance of sovereign debt that crowds out corporate issuers. The document recommends strengthening regulatory frameworks, providing technical assistance for project pipeline development, and utilizing risk-mitigation tools like guarantees to attract a more diverse investor base beyond commercial banks.

The report finds that while there is interest in Green Bonds in the WAEMU region, the market is in a nascent stage due to underdeveloped financial infrastructure, a lack of government focus on climate regulatory frameworks, and limited technical capacity among stakeholders. It identifies energy, agriculture, and clean transportation as priority sectors and recommends sustained capacity building, the development of regional guidelines, and the use of technical assistance and risk-transfer instruments to attract investors.

Africa requires USD 277 billion annually to meet its 2030 climate goals, yet only USD 29.5 billion was tracked in 2019/2020. International public finance dominates the landscape, while private sector contributions remain low at 14%. The report highlights significant investment gaps, particularly in Southern Africa, and a critical need to shift funding from fossil fuels toward renewable energy and adaptation, especially in the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sector.

The document argues that Africa faces an annual financing gap of over $100 billion to preserve its natural capital, which is critical for global climate and biodiversity goals. It proposes a 'triple bottom line' approach—combining financial returns, environmental impact, and community benefits—applied through landscape financing, restorative agriculture, and sustainable supply chains. The paper identifies green bonds, carbon credits, and impact investing as key financial mechanisms and calls for stronger regulatory frameworks, such as the adoption of Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) guidelines, to attract private capital and prevent 'nature-washing'.