African oil-producing countries plan to start an energy bank to fill a funding gap as traditional investors turn away from crude to low-carbon energy.
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The African Energy Bank will be funded with $6 billion seed capital from the African Export–Import Bank, said Taher Najah, a spokesman for the African Petroleum Producers Organization, a group of oil-producing countries on the continent including Nigeria and Angola.
More financing, for the bank to be set up by the second quarter of next year, will be sourced from other African nations, including sovereign wealth funds and national oil companies, he said, at gathering of national oil companies’ chief executive officers in Luanda, the capital of Angola.
Global efforts to fund clean energy in a bid to eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions means that African nations, such as Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo that believe their countries have a right to benefit from their natural resources, may face financial, technological and market challenges, according to a study by APPO.
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“Everybody has to transition, but Africa’s energy transition will be done in its own way,” Najah said. “They need oil and gas resources to do it.”
