Nigeria: CBD COP17 - Nigeria Deploys Biofin, Net-Zero Plan to Link Biodiversity With National Investments

What the report says

Nigeria told delegates at the CBD COP17 negotiations in Armenia that it is using tools such as the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) and the National Net-Zero Nature-Positive Implementation Plan to better connect biodiversity goals with national planning, financing and investment choices. The intervention came during a technical dialogue between finance and environment ministries focused on resource mobilisation under a previous CBD decision.

Nigeria’s focal point to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Sikeade Egbuwalo, said the country wants biodiversity to receive the same level of policy and financial attention as climate change. She argued that nature protection should be reflected in budgets, tax policy, public investment and broader economic planning, rather than treated only as an environmental issue. She also said biodiversity financing should not depend solely on how it supports climate goals.

According to the report, Nigeria launched its BIOFIN programme in late 2025 with UNDP support to help address its biodiversity financing gap and back conservation and sustainable ecosystem management. The article also places Nigeria’s stance within wider COP17 talks, where countries are debating how to raise new funds, redirect harmful subsidies and improve access to existing resources for conservation.

The development matters because African countries have long argued that global biodiversity financing has not matched the value of their natural resources or the costs of protecting them. Nigeria said it expects the dialogue to produce practical steps on budgeting, financing tools and stronger coordination between finance and environment ministries.