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By Annonciata Byukusenge
From project ownership and verification to pricing and benefit-sharing, CMAS 2026 will bring African market leaders and global decision-makers together to examine who creates and captures value.
A carbon credit may be traded as a single unit, but its value is shaped long before it reaches a buyer. Decisions about project ownership, finance, data, verification, and benefit-sharing determine who participates, who carries the risk, and who ultimately benefits. As new regulations and international partnerships expand market access, these questions are becoming increasingly important across Africa.
They will be central to the Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) 2026, taking place from 13 to 15 October at the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda. The summit will convene African governments, project developers, investors, buyers, and technical experts involved in decisions across the carbon-market value chain.
Countries are approaching these decisions from different regulatory, economic, and environmental positions. While recent developments in East Africa demonstrate growing market activity, questions concerning international requirements, technical capacity, investment, and benefit-sharing are relevant across Africa.
Ousmane Fall SARR, Coordinator of the West African Alliance on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance, says:
“African countries are developing carbon markets from different starting points. Stronger African expertise and regional cooperation will be important if the continent is to contribute to the standards and market practices that determine how its projects compete, attract investment, and create value.”
Against this continental backdrop, East Africa provides a timely example of how the market is developing. In January 2026, Rwanda and Singapore invited applications for carbon-credit projects under their bilateral Implementation Agreement, aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Credits from authorized projects may be used by eligible Singapore-based carbon tax-liable companies to offset up to 5% of their taxable emissions, subject to both governments’ requirements.
Across the continent, carbon market frameworks are rapidly taking shape. Kenya and Uganda are strengthening regulatory oversight, regional partnerships are helping governments build market capacity and infrastructure, and South Africa is advancing reforms to modernize its carbon-credit ecosystem and attract investment. Together, these developments are bringing greater focus to questions of authorization, project ownership, verification, pricing, and access to international buyers, while also raising expectations that carbon finance should deliver sustainable economic and development value beyond the credit itself.
Emmanuelle Nicholls, Portfolio Director for CMAS, says:
“A carbon credit may be the final product, but behind it are decisions about ownership, data, risk, pricing, and who ultimately benefits. The conversations in Kigali will examine what credible participation looks like across the full carbon-market value chain.”
These decisions have consequences beyond individual transactions. Carbon finance is increasingly connected to conservation, agriculture, soil restoration, food security, clean energy, and waste management. Its success will therefore also be judged by whether projects produce credible environmental outcomes and lasting benefits for African economies and communities.
A practical example comes from the Chinko Conservation Area in the Central African Republic, where revenue from the Chinko Carbon Project is channelled through a community fund that supports locally selected initiatives, including the expansion of a medical center in Agoumar. At CMAS 2026, African Parks and Welthungerhilfe, both Bronze Sponsors, will share perspectives on how carbon finance can support conservation, climate resilience, food systems, and community development, while highlighting broader questions around project governance, impact, and the distribution of value.
From project-level impact to market-wide structures, these questions will underpin discussions at CMAS 2026. The program will address government authorization, buyer requirements, pricing and offtake, investment risk, early-stage finance, registries, and African measurement, reporting, and verification capacity. It will connect the question of who sets the terms with the practical requirements for building credible, investment-ready projects and transactions.
The Ministry of Environment of Rwanda hosts CMAS 2026, with UNDP and the African Development Bank as host organisations, the Development Bank of Southern Africa as host partner, and AUDA-NEPAD as strategic institutional partner.
Ahead of COP31, CMAS will focus attention on the decisions behind every carbon credit and what they mean for African governments, projects, investors, and communities.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of VUKA Group.
