Uche Cecil Izuora
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri has hinted that Nigeria could be ready to provide additional funding to the Africa Energy Bank (AEB) to ensure its takeoff.
The new commitment follows seeming delays by some African countries in meeting their capital subscription commitments.
Sen. Lokpobiri, said on Tuesday at the 2026 Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference in Lagos that despite the fact that Nigeria was already contributing 70 per cent of the bank’s capital, the country was prepared to cover the remaining funding gap should other African nations fail to fulfil their obligations.
In 2024, President Bola Tinubu approved a $100m investment for a class A share in the bank, positioning Nigeria favourably to host the multilateral $5bn Africa Energy Bank, which will finance energy projects across the continent.
“Africa’s problem, largely, is access to capital. That’s why the African Petroleum Producers Organisation came up with the idea of an African energy bank,” Lokpobiri said.
He noted that Nigeria has earned the trust of other African nations to host the bank’s headquarters and has fulfilled all its responsibilities as the host country. The headquarters was handed over to the African Petroleum Producers Organisation and Afrexim Bank in Abuja last week.
“We’ve handed the headquarters over to them, and we have given them a timeline within which the bank has to be launched. Nigeria, as the host country, has obligations, and we have met all obligations,” he said.
The minister added that during a meeting with African counterparts in Abuja on Monday, Nigeria offered to raise the remaining balance of the minimum capital if delays persisted.
“When my colleagues in Africa came to Abuja, and we had a meeting on Monday, I told them that if they are going to delay raising the balance of the minimum capital needed, Nigeria will raise it so the bank can take off, and they were very excited,” Lokpobiri said.
Drawing a parallel with the African Export-Import Bank, he explained that it was not unusual for a few countries to shoulder the initial funding burden for continental financial institutions.
“When Afrexim Bank started, not all countries raised their capital at the same time. A few countries had to raise the capital, and the bank started. Today, the bank is huge,” he said.
Lokpobiri stressed that the Africa Energy Bank must commence operations without further delay to support oil and gas financing across Africa.
“This specialised bank needs to take off without any further delay so that we will be able to raise the funding needed. If we have to solve Africa’s energy problem, the solution is raising capital to finance Africa’s oil and gas projects,” he said.
He also accused countries in the global North of using financing as a tool to undermine Africa’s energy ambitions, insisting that the continent must develop homegrown solutions.
“The global North has always used financing as a weapon against the continent, and this is the time for us to find a homegrown solution to our financing problem,” he said.
As SAIPEC marked its 10th edition, Lokpobiri urged the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria to set targets for the next decade and assured them of the Federal Government’s support, stressing the need to reduce the cost of oil production as Nigeria’s cost per barrel remains among the highest globally.