FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
First Regional Marketplace for Nature-Based Offsets Launches Pilot Trades, Linking African Supply with Global Buyers
New platform targets 1 million tCO₂e in 2025 pilot, focusing on high-integrity AFOLU credits from Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique
NAIROBI, Kenya – 20 November 2025
A Nairobi-based climate-finance consortium today began pilot trading on the world’s first regional marketplace dedicated exclusively to nature-based carbon offsets, marking a milestone in efforts to channel voluntary-market finance directly into African afforestation, reforestation and mangrove-restoration projects.
The exchange, known as AFRI-GEO Marketplace, opened its order books at 09:00 EAT with 210,000 credits sourced from three registered projects in Kenya’s coastal Kwale County, Ghana’s Aowin district and Mozambique’s Zambezi delta. Chief Executive Amina Korir said the platform expects to match buyers and sellers for one million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e) before the pilot concludes in Q4 2026, pricing that volume at today’s regional spot rate of US $13.45 per tCO₂e.
“Fragmentation has kept African suppliers on the sidelines of the voluntary market,” Korir told reporters. “AFRI-GEO compresses due-diligence costs, standardizes contracts and—crucially—settles trades in local currency, cutting transaction time from months to three days.”
Recent data from the Climate Policy Initiative show that while Africa holds 30 % of the world’s nature-based mitigation potential, only 8 % of issued credits originate on the continent . Korir said the marketplace would close that gap by embedding third-party validation against the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s forthcoming Core Carbon Principles, ensuring every credit listed carries Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) accreditation.
Global demand continues to outstrip supply. Ecosystem Marketplace’s latest State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2025 report values bilateral nature-based contracts at US $1.8 billion year-to-date, a 42 % increase over 2024, with AFOLU credits commanding an average premium of 34 % over renewable-energy offsets. AFRI-GEO’s clearing price—displayed in real time on a public dashboard—already sits 11 % above the global weighted average, signaling robust appetite from European and North-American corporates racing to meet 2030 net-zero pledges.
The marketplace is backed by a US $40 million technical-assistance facility sponsored by the Fund for Nature, UNEP and the African Development Bank. The facility pre-finances project development, sparing landowners the two- to three-year wait for credit issuance. During the pilot, 60 % of the platform’s fee revenue will be channelled into a guarantee pool that insures buyers against reversal events such as drought or fire, a move analysts say could become industry standard.
Trading is conducted through a bilateral order-matching engine accessible via web portal and API; payment can be settled in Kenyan shillings, Ghanaian cedis, U.S. dollars or euro. AFRI-GEO plans to list futures contracts by mid-2026, subject to approval from Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority, and aims to integrate with CME Group’s Nature-Based Global Emissions Offset (N-GEO) futures to give participants seamless access to international liquidity pools .
Environmental NGOs cautiously welcomed the launch. “A regional bourse is exactly what we need to keep more value—and more trees—on the ground,” said Mwangi Kibathi, Africa policy lead at The Nature Conservancy. “But success will hinge on transparent governance and equitable benefit-sharing with local communities.” AFRI-GEO has responded by publishing project-level dividend data; in Kwale, 52 % of credit revenue is contractually earmarked for 4,200 smallholder farmers.
About AFRI-GEO Marketplace
AFRI-GEO is a Nairobi-headquartered, for-benefit marketplace incorporated in Kenya and registered as a non-profit entity. Its mission is to accelerate investment in high-integrity nature-based solutions across Africa by providing transparent price discovery, standardized contracts and rapid settlement. The platform is governed by a nine-member supervisory board comprising three independent directors, three investor representatives and three civil-society observers.
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