Africa’s Energy Bank: Hope, Hurdles and the Battle for the Continent’s Energy Future By Charles Tambou
A quiet revolution is taking shape in Africa’s energy sector. For decades, African nations have depended heavily on Western banks and foreign investors to fund oil, gas, and power projects. But as those financiers turn away from fossil fuels, Africa is charting a new course by building its own bank, the Africa Energy Bank (AEB) and its headquarters is inAbuja, Nigeria.
The Africa Energy Bank is the brainchild of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) and Afreximbank, Africa’s trade finance powerhouse. Its mission is simple but ambitious, to raise about $5 billion to fund oil, gas, and power infrastructure across the continent. In other words, projects that foreign lenders are now reluctant to support.
For many African countries, this bank could not have come at a better t...