Africa Launches Its Own Oil Bank as Western Lenders Retreat

Africa now has a bank built to finance the oil and gas projects Western banks and development lenders have dropped under their climate commitments. Afreximbank and the African Petroleum Producers' Organization APPO formally established the Africa Energy Bank AEB at its inaugural general meeting in Abuja on October 31. That was more than four years after the two institutions began work on it and some 20 months behind schedule.

Abuja beat bids from six countries, including Ghana, Algeria, South Africa and Benin, to host the bank. Its 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.