Key points
- The bank becomes operational within weeks and starts financing at the start of 2027.
- It will back export infrastructure, domestic infrastructure, clean cooking and power.
- Africa needs at least $1 trillion over 30 years to develop its gas, the GECF says.
The Africa Energy Bank will become operational within weeks and begin financing projects at the start of 2027, according to Farid Ghezali, secretary general of the African Petroleum Producers Organization. He spoke on a technical panel of the GECF-AEC Strategic Forum at African Energy Week 2026 in Cape Town.
The bank was set up by APPO and Afreximbank and is billed as a $5 billion initiative based in Abuja.
It will use a corridor approach, prioritizing projects that deliver regional economic development across four pillars: export infrastructure, domestic infrastructure, clean cooking and power. Nigeria handed over the Abuja headquarters in February.
However, Climate Home News reported on Oct. 9 that the launch had slipped from an original January 2025 target, with the African Energy Chamber now pointing to November.
Domestic supply versus exports
“I come from a country where you cannot export any drop of gas if the domestic demand is not satisfied,” Ghezali said. APPO and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum signed an agreement earlier this year on gas corridors and plan to harmonize transit tariffs and contracts across member states.
Rashid Ali Abdallah of the African Energy Commission said recent investment has gone mostly into export terminals while regional pipelines struggle to attract funding.
South Africa’s gas supply risk
Jaco Human of the Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa said South African industrial users could lose natural gas supply within about 18 months, with only a short-term coal bridge after that.
A proposed pipeline linking the Orange Basin to Western Cape and inland markets would need around 200 petajoules of annual demand.
“We have much more demand than that, so the problem is not an economic one,” he said. “Rather, it is a coordination problem.”
Demand outlook
Abubakar Abbas of the GECF said Africa needs at least $1 trillion over the next 30 years to develop its gas resources.
OPEC’s Abderrezak Benyoucef said gas should rise from 17% to 23% of Africa’s energy mix by 2050, with electricity generation growing from under 1,000 TWh to about 2,700 TWh, half of it from gas.
