Key facts
- The bank's $5 billion authorized capital is a ceiling; about $500 million has been mobilized so far.
- Afreximbank contributed $222 million and a Nigerian contribution was reported at between $100 million and $200 million.
- The AEB aims to mobilize up to $10 billion in financing in its first operational phase.
- The bank plans to fund at least three projects in 2027, starting with regional refineries and pipelines.
- Helmy Ghazi, formerly deputy CEO of HSBC Bank Egypt, is the bank's first president.
- The mandate covers exploration, production, transport, processing, refining, distribution, pipelines, refineries and power.
Afreximbank and the African Petroleum Producers' Organization formally established the Africa Energy Bank at its inaugural general meeting in Abuja on October 31, more than four years after the two institutions began work on it and about 20 months behind schedule. Abuja beat bids from six countries, including Ghana, Algeria, South Africa and Benin, to host the bank.
The bank's first president is Helmy Ghazi, formerly deputy CEO of HSBC Bank Egypt, and a board drawn from the public sector, private sector and policy institutions will lead it. Its 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's $5 billion in authorized capital is a ceiling. About $500 million has been mobilized so far, including $222 million from Afreximbank and a Nigerian contribution reported at between $100 million and $200 million. The AEB aims to mobilize 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.
Its founders want to cut Africa's dependence on imported petroleum products, expand intra-African energy trade, and finance what they call a just energy transition in which African governments set the pace. The continent needs an estimated $200 billion in energy investment, and roughly 600 million Africans still lack electricity.
Africa received about $35 billion a year in energy finance from G20 countries and multilateral development banks between 2012 and 2021, according to a Carnegie report. Private money is flowing into African energy but toward clean power: climate tech startups raised about $1.2 billion in 2025, or 38% of all venture funding on the continent, according to Africa: The Big Deal.
China remains the dominant external financier of African energy and mining. The Export-Import Bank of China and the China Development Bank have lent $182 billion across Africa since 2000, mostly into the energy sector, and China has supported about 23 GW of generation capacity across at least 27 sub-Saharan countries, roughly 20% of the region's total, according to the report.