- The $5 billion Africa Energy Bank expects to begin financing energy projects in early 2027, APPO Secretary General Farid Ghezali says.
- The bank will prioritise export infrastructure, domestic energy supply, clean cooking and power projects across Africa.
The Africa Energy Bank expects to begin financing energy projects in early 2027, Farid Ghezali, Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO), announced at the GECF-AEC Strategic Forum during African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa.
APPO and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) established the $5 billion initiative to expand energy investment across Africa. The bank will operate from Abuja, Nigeria, and adopt a corridor-based approach that prioritises projects with regional economic benefits.
Four Priority Investment Areas
The bank will focus on four areas: export infrastructure, domestic energy infrastructure, clean cooking and power. Its strategy aims to support energy development while addressing the continent’s domestic supply needs.
The bank’s launch follows delays from its original January 2025 target. In February 2026, Nigeria handed over the Abuja headquarters to APPO and Afreximbank. Recent reports have pointed to November 2026 for the launch, ahead of the bank’s planned start of project financing in 2027.
Balancing Domestic Demand and Exports
Ghezali stressed the importance of meeting domestic energy needs before exporting resources. “I come from a country where you cannot export any drop of gas if the domestic demand is not satisfied,” he said.
Earlier this year, APPO and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) signed an agreement on gas corridors. The organisations also plan to harmonise transit tariffs and gas contracts across member states to facilitate regional gas trade.
Rashid Ali Abdallah, Executive Director of the African Energy Commission (AFREC), said investment has largely favoured export terminals. Meanwhile, regional pipelines continue to struggle to attract funding.
South Africa Faces Gas Supply Challenges
Jaco Human, Executive Officer of the Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa (IGUA-SA), warned that South African industrial consumers could lose their natural gas supply within about 18 months. He said coal could provide only a short-term bridge.
A proposed pipeline from the Orange Basin to the Western Cape and inland markets would require annual demand of around 200 petajoules. Human said demand already exceeds that threshold.
“We have much more demand than that, so the problem is not an economic one,” Human said. “Rather, it is a coordination problem.”
His remarks highlighted the need for coordinated infrastructure investment and stronger regional planning to connect gas resources with industrial consumers.
Africa’s Long-Term Energy Investment Needs
Abubakar Abbas, Senior Energy Forecast Analyst at the GECF, said Africa would need at least $1 trillion over the next 30 years to develop its gas resources.
Abderrezak Benyoucef, Head of Energy Studies at OPEC, projected that natural gas would increase its share of Africa’s energy mix from 17% to 23% by 2050.
He also projected that Africa’s electricity generation would rise from less than 1,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) to approximately 2,700 TWh. Gas could account for half of that generation.
These projections underscore the scale of investment required to expand energy infrastructure, improve domestic supply and meet Africa’s growing electricity demand. The Africa Energy Bank aims to channel financing into projects that support these priorities and strengthen regional energy development.