African Energy Bank to finance gas projects from early 2027

The Africa Energy Bank (AEB) will begin financing projects in early 2027 after becoming operational within weeks, Farid Ghezali, secretary-general of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO), said at African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 in Cape Town. According to an October 13 media release by the African Energy Chamber (AEC), Ghezali made the remarks during a technical panel at the GECF-AEC Strategic Forum.

The bank, established by APPO and Afreximbank, will prioritise projects under four areas: export infrastructure, domestic infrastructure, clean cooking and power. It will use a corridor-based approach to support regional economic development. APPO and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) also plan to harmonise transit tariffs and gas contracts across member states following an agreement earlier this year to cooperate on gas corridors.

Ghezali said export commitments should not come at the expense of domestic supply. “I come from a country where you cannot export any drop of gas if the domestic demand is not satisfied,” he said.

Panellists said limited investment in regional infrastructure was holding back domestic gas markets. Rashid Ali Abdallah, executive director of the African Energy Commission (AFREC), said funding had focused largely on export terminals, leaving cross-border pipelines struggling to secure finance. He called for regional financing frameworks and joint planning for gas pipelines and power transmission.

South African industrial consumers could lose their natural gas supply within about 18 months, said Jaco Human, executive officer of the Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa (IGUA-SA). The association represents industrial gas users and supports the development of a proposed gas-aggregation company to pool demand, share risk and help secure investment in new infrastructure.

According to Human, a proposed pipeline from the Orange Basin to the Western Cape and inland markets would require annual demand of about 200 petajoules. “We have much more demand than that, so the problem is not an economic one,” Human said as quoted by the AEC. “Rather, it is a coordination problem.”

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, OPEC’s head of energy studies, said gas was expected to increase its share of Africa’s energy mix from 17% to 23% by 2050. Over that period, electricity generation could rise from less than 1,000 terawatt-hours to about 2,700 TWh, with gas accounting for half.

The AEB is headquartered in Abuja. Nigeria handed over its offices to APPO and Afreximbank in February 2026.

According to the NewsBase Horizon analyst team, the AEB’s planned launch is as an opportunity to address one of the continent’s main energy-sector constraints: the lack of financing for infrastructure that connects resources to domestic and regional markets. However, the bank’s impact will depend on its ability to mobilise capital, coordinate projects across borders and turn investment commitments into functioning pipelines and power networks.

Africa’s challenge is not simply to develop more gas, but to ensure that production supports industrial growth, reliable electricity and affordable energy at home. If the bank can help align financing, regional demand and infrastructure planning, it could strengthen domestic markets while allowing producers to expand exports without compromising local supply.