Our services · Strategic Advisory
Enabling scalable climate finance through financial institutions
Moving climate capital from commitment to sustained deployment through domestic financial institutions.
Our work is grounded in the institutional realities of how banks allocate capital, manage risk and scale portfolios, and how DFIs and donors deploy catalytic capital credibly and efficiently.
The opportunity
Banks already hold the system — climate finance must run through it
Banks already deliver
90%+
Of SME financing in Sub-Saharan Africa flows through commercial banks.
Yet only an estimated
10–15%
Of SME portfolios are currently climate-aligned — a structural opportunity, not a barrier.
The challenge is not demand: it is execution at scale.
Strategic advisory for banks
For African banks, climate finance is not a parallel activity. It is an opportunity to expand SME portfolios in priority growth sectors, access concessional capital, strengthen portfolio resilience, meet evolving regulatory and shareholder expectations, and lead in sustainable finance.
What banks gain
- Expand SME portfolios in priority growth sectors
- Access concessional and catalytic capital aligned to commercial lending
- Strengthen portfolio resilience and risk diversification
- Meet evolving regulatory, ESG and shareholder expectations
- Position the bank as a long-term leader in sustainable finance
How we work with you
- Bank-owned platform architecture aligned to existing structures
- Facility design integrated with credit, risk and treasury
- Origination logic for portfolio-level SME deployment
- ESG, gender and reporting frameworks embedded in bank MIS
- Execution-ready engagement sequencing — not a workshop deck
Principle 01
Balance-sheet aligned
No distortion of core financial metrics.
Principle 02
Credit-led
Consistent with existing underwriting and approval processes.
Principle 03
Operationally executable
Deployable through current teams and systems.
Principle 04
Scalable by design
Replicable across sectors and geographies.
Strategic advisory for DFIs & donors
Enabling credible, bank-anchored deployment.
CGA supports DFIs, climate funds and donors to deploy capital through domestic banks — reducing execution risk and improving real-economy impact.
Climate finance will only scale in Africa when it is:
- Embedded in domestic banking systems and locally owned
- Designed around real institutional constraints
- Executed through repeatable, portfolio-level approaches
01
Bank-anchored pathways
Deployment routes aligned to institutional governance.
02
Absorbable facilities
Facilities banks can absorb, operate and scale.
03
Portfolio-level origination
Stronger pipelines and portfolio-level deployment.
04
Embedded ESG & reporting
ESG, gender and reporting architectures inside bank systems.
05
Less parallel structure
Reduced reliance on bespoke vehicles or workarounds.
What guides every engagement
Three things we don't compromise on
Whether the engagement is with a bank or a DFI, the same principles hold, because the goal is the same: capital that deploys repeatedly through institutions, not around them.
Bank-anchored, not bank-adjacent
Banks remain the lender of record and the long-term owners of climate finance capability.
Non-lending, non-fiduciary
CGA does not deploy capital, manage funds or assume credit authority, we structure the architecture.
Execution-first
We design for what can be implemented within existing institutional systems, teams and mandates.
How an engagement unfolds
From first conversation to deployment
Most engagements start with a 90-day diagnostic. From there, scope expands based on what the institution is ready to build.
Diagnostic
Facility readiness
A 90-day institutional diagnostic assessing systems, mandates and execution readiness.
Design
Architecture & structure
Platform design, capital structuring, governance and origination logic aligned to the bank's reality.
Align
Partner alignment
DFI, donor and value-chain partner alignment around a single deployment-ready facility concept.
Deploy
Implementation support
Pilot sequencing, ESG / MRV setup and replication planning — deployment that compounds.
Start with a facility diagnostic.
Ninety days. One bank. A concrete roadmap from where you are to a deployable, climate-aligned SME finance facility.