The Nigerian government has hinted on its readiness to provide more funding to the Africa Energy Bank (AEB) to expertise its takeoff. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, who gave the hint last week at the 2026 Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference in Lagos, said the new commitment followed seeming delays by some African countries in meeting their capital subscription commitments.
The minister observed that despite already contributing 70 percent of the bank’s capital, Nigeria was prepared to cover the remaining funding gap should other African nations fail to fulfil their obligations. President Bola Tinubu had in 2024 approved a $100million investment for a class A share in the bank, positioning Nigeria favourably to host the multilateral $5billion 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,” he added. 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.
