The African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) has made progress on its plans launch an energy bank, aiming to choose a host for the new organisation by April 2024.
APPO said its members were committed to the African Energy Bank (AEB). The aim is to secure funding for the development of regional energy infrastructure, it said. This will provide “energy security and sustainable development”.
The APPO meeting concluded on November 2 in Benin. It was led by Benin Minister of Energy, Water and Mines Samou Seidou Adambi.
Cote d’Ivoire has said APPO would launch the AEB no later than June 30, 2024. The Ivoirian energy ministry said APPO had set out plans for the bank in 2022, during talks in Angola.
Benin’s Seidou Adambi, in the Cote d’Ivoire statement, said the organisation would help make Africa self sufficient.
“Without energy, there is no life. Today, we are doing everything we can to ensure that the African Energy Bank becomes a reality by June 30, 2024,” the Benin minister said.
The APPO ministerial council noted it had negotiated the founding documents with Afreximbank.
APPO asked its secretary general, Omar Farouk Ibrahim, to submit a feasibility study, a business plan and a timeline by November 30.
There is a fixed deadline of March 31, 2024, to choose a host country for the bank. APPO’s council will hold an extraordinary session by the end of the first quarter to choose this.
God-given resources
Ghana Energy Minister Matthew Opoku Prempeh said talks in Benin had focused on how to “use our God-given resource – hydrocarbons – for the growth and prosperity of our citizens without hindrances”.
The minister said Africa, and APPO, should “decipher” the differences of Africa’s energy needs and the “politics of climate change”. Creating the Africa Energy Bank will be “a lifeline for the African continent as it will be that entity to serve as the lead financial arranger in terms of the funding of our oil and gas projects”.
Ivoirian Minister of Mines, Oil and Energy Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly welcomed the commitment. Launching the AEB, he said, was an expression of the will of Africa’s oil producers and Afreximbank.
“Until you have capital and know-how, you cannot get the most out of your resources,” he continued. Relying on external resources, and technology, would not allow Africa to achieve its desired objectives, Sangafowa-Coulibaly said.
Afreximbank agreed to support the plans to find a “sustainable and balanced solution”, it said in 2022. The aim is find financing for oil and gas in Africa during the energy transition.
The APPO agreed director general of Cameroon’s Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) Adolphe Moudiki would be its president in 2024. Congo (Kinshasa) Minister of Hydrocarbons Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua will be the vice president.
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