The Association of Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) says African Energy Bank (AEB) is being positioned to raise about $15 billion to finance oil and gas projects in the continent of Africa by 2030.
APPO said the bank, which would begin operation fully by June in Abuja was expected to create over 500,000 direct jobs in the local midstream.
APPO Secretary-General, Farid Ghezali, disclosed this on Tuesday in his remarks at the official opening of the 2026 edition of the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) at the State House, Abuja.
African Energy Bank is a joint initiative of APPO member states and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), established with an initial capital of Five billion dollars.
Its core mandate is to mobilise domestic and regional capital for energy infrastructure, reduce Africa’s reliance on external financing, and align energy investments with the continent’s long-term development and industrialisation goals.
“The AEB will unify intra-African pricing for gas and oil, allowing our member countries to achieve savings of up to 30 per cent on their energy imports, a potential gain of 1.4 billion dollars for Africa,” he said.
Ghezali said in spite of the continent’s immense potential, Africa was facing a paradoxical and frustrating reality of exporting about 70 per cent of its crude oil and 45 per cent of natural gas, losing 15 billion dollars yearly.
He said financing remained the main bottleneck hindering the development of the continent’s strategic projects, adding that over 150 essential projects, from refineries to pipelines, such as the Ajeokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, to gas infrastructure remained blocked.
To address this anomaly, the APPO secretary-general said the African Energy Bank was designed to unlock the 200 billion needed for the continent’s midstream-downstream projects by 2030.
Ghezali disclosed that the African Energy Bank would allow the listing of shares of the national oil companies in the continent and flagship projects, such as the Dangote Refinery or the AKK Gas Pipeline.
