Africa has officially established the Africa Energy Bank (AEB), a $5 billion institution headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria, aimed at financing oil and gas projects increasingly overlooked by Western lenders due to climate commitments.The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) formally established the bank at its inaugural general meeting in Abuja on October 31st, 2026, appointing Egyptian banker Helmy Ghazi as its first president and constituting its first board of directors. The bank, with authorised capital of $5 billion, is designed to bridge a financing gap as traditional lenders withdraw funding from fossil fuels, even as oil and gas remain central to Africa’s energy systems.
The AEB’s mandate covers the entire energy value chain: exploration and production, transport, processing, refining and distribution, cross-border pipelines and regional refineries, and power generation and transmission. The bank will operate as an independent, supranational pan-African financial institution, attracting investment from governments, national oil companies, financial institutions and private investors.
The establishment comes amid growing concerns over financing constraints facing Africa’s petroleum industry, particularly as international financial institutions increasingly restrict lending to fossil fuel projects, with the continent’s energy investment needs estimated at $200 billion. The bank aims to boost productive capacity, reduce reliance on imported petroleum products and promote intra-African energy trade.
The $5 billion in authorised capital is a ceiling, not funds already received or available for lending, with about $500 million mobilised so far, including $222 million from Afreximbank and a Nigerian contribution reported at between $100 million and $200 million. The AEB aims to mobilise up to $10 billion in financing in its first operational phase and plans to fund at least three projects in 2027, starting with regional refineries and pipelines.
Nigeria, as host country, handed over the bank’s Abuja headquarters in February 2026, with the facility located on the third floor of the Afreximbank African Trade Centre. The bank’s establishment followed a 20-month delay from its originally proposed January 2025 operationalisation deadline, caused by disagreements over the transfer of equity subscriptions, capital commitments and other establishment requirements.
The AEB represents Africa’s answer to the retreat of Western financial institutions from fossil fuel financing, with APPO member countries including Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ghana and South Africa among the bank’s founders. The bank’s first real test will be whether it can structure and fund actual projects, with lending not expected to begin until the end of 2026 and the first financing targeted for 2027.
For Africa, the bank signals a determination to take control of its energy financing destiny, with the challenge now to mobilise the additional capital needed to close the $200 billion gap and deliver the infrastructure that will power the continent’s industrialisation.
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