Accra, Sept. 9, GNA – Mr Kwaku Osei-Sarpong, Founder of CIPA Holdings Group, has called for innovative financial solutions to overcome Ghana’s longstanding challenges in green infrastructure financing.
He said Ghana’s net-zero ambitions would succeed or fail depending on how effectively the country mobilizes and structures capital.
Mr Osei-Sarpong was speaking at the 2025 Energy Sustainability and Leadership Conference (ESLC) in Accra.
The Conference convened policymakers, private sector leaders, and climate finance experts to discuss Ghana’s pathway to a sustainable energy future.
Mr Osei-Sarpong, who is the recipient of the Rising Star of the Year award at the 2024 Ghana Energy Awards, said structural challenges facing Ghana’s financial market, began with the government’s limited fiscal space under IMF programme constraints, which reduced its ability to fund large-scale projects.
He said commercial banks, with lending rates ranging between 20–30 per cent in Ghana cedis and 7–12 per cent in USD financing from DFIs, offered short repayment tenors that were ill-suited for climate-sensitive investments.
The CEO said compounding the issue was the lack of patient capital required to support the “triple bottom line” nature of green projects: balancing people, planet, and profit.
He stressed that these bottlenecks had slowed progress on renewable energy, electromobility, and public infrastructure, despite Ghana’s abundant potential.
“One of the most urgent points raised was the underutilization of domestic capital pools. Ghanaian pension funds, which collectively manage billions of cedis, currently invest heavily in government bonds and low-risk treasuries,” he added.
He said similarly, the Ghana Stock Exchange had yet to fully embrace green bonds and ESG-linked instruments as mainstream financing tools.
“When it comes to green energy financing, it is not so much about going to get new money but rather it is about how do we leverage and structure existing capital to suit the transition,” Mr Osei-Sarpong added.
He said as a front-runner in clean energy and infrastructure, CIPA Holdings Group had emerged as a trusted partner to governments, DFIs, and private investors.
The CEO said his company had developed a reputation for structuring climate-resilient projects that aligned with both national development priorities and global sustainability targets.
He said there were several practical models that could help Ghana close its green financing gap, including project finance via special purpose vehicles (SPVs): Ring-fencing project revenues to make deals bankable, even for SMEs and blended finance: combining concessional capital from DFIs with private sector funding to reduce risk and lower borrowing costs.
Others are lease-to-own & PAYGO Models: Successful private-sector models that have accelerated solar adoption in both commercial and residential markets and green bonds & carbon finance: Leveraging ESG-linked instruments to attract international institutional capital.
The rest are mobilizing pension funds: advocating for a 5–10 per cent allocation of pension fund capital toward bankable green projects via regulated private equity channels.
He said his intervention directly complemented the Ministry’s $3.4 billion Renewable Energy Action Plan, reinforcing the shared priority of unlocking climate finance for projects such as net metering, EV charging, solar street lighting, and utility-scale renewables.
“Green financing must shift from being a constraint to becoming Ghana’s competitive advantage,” he added.
Mr Osei-Sarpong said CIPA was committed to mobilizing climate capital and structuring deals that not only deliver power, but also drive industrial growth and inclusive development.
He said recognized as a trusted partner to governments, DFIs, banks, and private investors, CIPA aligned its projects with SDGs, national priorities, and Africa’s net-zero transition.
Mr Seth Mahu Agbeve, Director of the Renewable Energy and Green Transition Directorate at the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, emphasised that companies failing to integrate renewable energy and ESG standards risked obsolescence in the face of tightening global trade rules.
He outlined the Ministry’s bold steps to establish a Renewable Energy Authority and launch a $3.4 billion Renewable Energy Action Plan to expand net metering, EV charging, solar street lighting, and utility-scale renewables.
GNA
Christian Akorlie