Africa Energy Bank ready next month – Minister

The much-awaited Africa Energy Bank will commence operations in March 2025, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has reiterated.

Lokpobiri stated this yesterday at the opening of the Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Conference organised by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria.

According to him, the building hosting the bank is receiving finishing touches in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Lokpobiri said Africa’s major problem is energy poverty and the problem lies with Africans.

“For us in Africa, the Africa Energy Bank is the solution. The African Energy Bank is good to go. This is a bank that will start with about $5bn, contributed between member countries and the Afrexim Bank. The Afrexim Bank has said they are going to, as part of the agreement, cede their oil and gas portfolio to that bank. The projections are that by the next four or five years, this bank will grow and ascend to $120bn. We want people to come and invest in that bank. We want sustainable investments, not promises that they can never be kept.

“And so we are very proud that as part of our commitments to host the African Energy Bank, the building is ready. We are putting the finishing touches to it. It’s a beautiful building, the best you can find in Africa. And our own projections are that this bank will take off by this quarter. This is February.”

We believe that by the end of this quarter, this bank will formally take off. So you don’t need to go elsewhere to look for funding,” he explained.

The oil minister urged local investors in oil and gas to look inward for funding while calling on African heads of state to bring all the funds they have in investments after the continent.

“Bring it and invest in this sector. If we have to solve our problem of energy poverty, with 600 million having no electricity, there’s no way we can industrialise; and without industrialisation, we can never grow. The world will go and leave Africa behind,” he stated.

He emphasised the need to drill for more oil and gas with sufficient investments in the sector.

“What we need is investment. Bring substantial resources and invest so that Nigerians and Africans can buy the energy at an affordable rate. The time has come for shared efforts. The time has come for all African countries to come together and find a common solution to our own energy problems.

“This grammar of energy transition is just geopolitics. For those of you who are in the oil and gas sector, please, feel free. Let us follow (Donald) Trump-Drill, baby drill. Let us, first of all, solve our energy poverty problems before we talk about transition,” he stated.