BOAD Development Days 2026: Luc Gnacadja advocates for cities’ access to green financing.

The mayor of Cotonou, Luc Gnacadja, argued for extending the energy transition beyond just buildings, to neighborhoods and cities, and for climate funding to genuinely reach local communities. He spoke at the BOAD Development Days 2026 forum held on June 11 and 12 in Lomé.

Organized by the West African Development Bank (BOAD), a financing institution of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) based in Lomé, this second edition focused on financing sustainable and inclusive housing as a lever for energy sovereignty. The forum gathered around 400 participants and was opened by the president of BOAD, Serge Ekué. Discussions highlighted an estimated deficit of four million housing units in the UEMOA area, which is projected to have a population exceeding 300 million by 2050, more than half of whom will live in urban areas.

A trained architect and former executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Luc Gnacadja advocated for a broader concept of housing that encompasses infrastructure, services, public spaces, and mobility. He emphasized bioclimatic design, asserting that the cheapest and least polluting energy is the energy that is not consumed, and argued that the transition is as crucial in already inhabited neighborhoods as in future constructions. He also promoted the use of local materials such as stabilized earth, ceramic, and wood to reduce imports, emissions, and costs while creating jobs.

Regarding funding, the mayor noted that the persistent difficulty local communities face in accessing green funding should be seen as “an indicator of the system’s underperformance.” He believed that the effectiveness of climate finance mechanisms should not be measured solely by the announced amounts but by their ability to reach the territories that drive transformations.

BOAD integrates these days into its strategic plan for 2026-2030, focused on developing integrated territories. The first edition of the forum in June 2025 addressed the energy transition and sustainable agriculture.