Green Climate Fund Accredits MFLC as First Maldivian Direct Access Entity
The Malé lender can now develop funding proposals for the world's largest dedicated climate fund itself. All four GCF-funded projects in the Maldives so far were brought by international agencies.
The News
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has accredited Maldives Finance and Leasing Company (MFLC), making the Malé-based lender the first Maldivian institution to become one of the fund's national direct access entities. The fund's Board approved MFLC on Wednesday, 28 October, at its 46th meeting in Songdo, Republic of Korea, the GCF said, naming it among 16 new accredited entities.
The Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy and MFLC announced the approval in a joint press release the same day. The release said accreditation lets national institutions develop climate financing proposals and submit them directly to the GCF.
Until now, Maldivian projects have reached the fund through international agencies. The GCF's Maldives page lists four projects in the country, one of them a multi-country programme, with US$77.4 million in GCF financing. They were brought by the UN Development Programme, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Dutch development bank FMO and the UN Environment Programme.
Know More
MFLC applied as a national direct access entity, nominated by the Maldives' national designated authority, according to the GCF Accreditation Panel's assessment, dated 5 October. The panel found that MFLC met all the screening requirements. It recommended accreditation for activities up to an environmental and social risk rating of "medium risk (category B/I-2)". The GCF defines category B as activities with limited adverse risks that are few, generally site-specific, largely reversible and readily addressed through mitigation.
MFLC was among the first applicants recommended under the GCF's revised accreditation framework, which took effect on 31 October 2025, the Board papers say. Under that framework, accreditation is complete once the Board approves it, and the GCF secretariat then issues a certificate confirming the entity's risk category. An accredited entity can then develop concept notes and funding proposals. It is assessed against the fund's fiduciary standards only when it submits one.
The GCF's review of MFLC's application took 151 days, the Board papers say. The joint release described an 11-month process that included institutional assessments and changes to the company's governance, risk management and operational frameworks.
According to the panel's report, MFLC was set up in 2001 as a joint initiative of the International Finance Corporation and the Maldives Monetary Authority, to diversify the financial sector and support entrepreneurs in tourism, infrastructure and fisheries. It was later bought by private owners and now focuses on finance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
The report says MFLC's climate-related loans have ranged from US$50,000 to US$5.2 million. It lists these examples:
| Project | Loans |
|---|---|
| Electric taxi fleet with charging stations (phase 1) | US$5.2 million |
| Water bottling plant switching to refillable containers | US$1.29 million |
| Energy-efficient air conditioning | US$259,000 |
| Solar photovoltaic systems | US$194,000 |
Step Back
The joint release said MFLC intends to explore GCF-supported financing for renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable maritime transport, water security and other climate-resilient investments. These would be in line with the Maldives' third nationally determined contribution, its climate plan under the Paris Agreement. The panel's report says the company has begun collecting preliminary data in the tourism sector, the largest sector of the Maldivian economy, to build a pipeline of projects.
The report also sets out MFLC's record of raising money at home. In 2023 it issued a privately placed bond on the Maldives Stock Exchange, which the Maldives Pension Administration Office bought. Together with borrowing from Bank of Maldives and Commercial Bank of Maldives, this raised MVR112.5 million (US$7.26 million), all of which had been lent out by 30 June 2026. In early 2026, MFLC made a US$3 million proposal to the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company for a first-phase electric taxi fleet. The project went ahead under a government-funded structure, without MFLC.
Thirteen applicants were recommended under the new framework at this meeting, the Board papers say. Six were direct access applicants, and three of those were private-sector companies: MFLC, Nigeria's InfraCredit and Mauritius-based XSML Capital. Before the meeting, 97 of the 155 countries eligible for GCF financing had no national direct access entity. The Maldives was one of them.
