A group of African countries is scheduled to launch a bank to finance oil and gas projects, amid an increasing frequency of Western institutions to increase investment in fossil fuels.

The planned “African Energy Bank” has been announced long ago, which is expected to be launched soon last June as a Joint initiative By the African Export Bank (AFREXIMBANK) and the African Petroleum Producers Organization (Appo)-a group of 18 oil-echoes.

The bank aims to raise growth by strengthening energy supplies in Africa. Its founders look at the lifeline on a continent rich in natural resources, but millions of people still lack electricity.

However, climate activists questioned the logic of doubling fossil fuels.

In addition, the oil and gas projects that were created today have a high possibility to become “unused assets”, which leads to debts expensive on the budgets of countries in the future as the world moves to low carbon alternatives.

To provide the needs of the material power of the Africans with the protection of the planet, experts say a balance is needed.

It caught between a rock and a difficult place

under 2015 Paris AgreementHundreds of countries have pledged to obtain global temperatures to less than 2 ° C (3.6 ° F) above the levels before industry. Since then, governments and companies – including in Africa have faced increasing pressure to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.

The World Bank stopped financing oil and gas extraction in 2019. In 2022, Shell suspended maritime exploration activity off the coast of South Africa after the Supreme Court ordered him to stop work due to successful legal challenges from environmental activists.

At that time, Happy Khambule, one of the top activists in Greenpeace Africa, He said“We must do our best to retract the legacy of destructive colonialism for extraction, so that we can live in a world in which people and the planet come before the profits of toxic fossil fuels.”

For his part, Omar Farouk Ibrahim, Secretary -General of Abu, said that there is “a need to achieve the right balance between the necessities of mitigating climate change and the need to avoid social unrest that can result from difficult economic and financial conditions in Africa.”

In fact, the energy needs in Africa are enormous.

The number of sub -Saharan Africans has increased without access to electricity in recent years. Since population growth outperformed the new energy supplies in 2023, he left 600 million people (43 percent of the continent) in the dark, according to the International Energy Agency.

While estimates are different, electricity supplies will need to increase five times to support industrial activity on a large scale and help raising the majority of Africans-a third of them live on it Less than $ 1.90 a day – From poverty.

On the basis of the individual, Africa has the lowest level of the use of modern energy in the world. At the level of the economy at the level of the economy, it is also backward. Globally, manufacturing compensates 42.2 percent Of the total energy consumption. In Africa, it is only 16.8 percent.

The President of Abu Ibrahim says that the Energy Bank in Africa is the result of the abandonment of Western countries[ing] Hydrocarbons “so that the leaders of the continent have no choice but to look inside to raise the funds required to preserve and develop [energy] industry”.

The headquarters of the Energy Bank in Africa is located in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

On February 11, the Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources told the correspondents that “the building is ready, and we only put the final touches on it, by the end of this quarter [end of March]This bank will start. “

The countries participating in the Energy Bank in Africa include Nigeria, Angola, Libya and others. The planned projects are expected to range from oil exploration abroad to new gas power plants.

Each country pledged $ 83 million and raised a total amount of $ 1.5 billion. It will be completed with $ 14 billion from Afreximbank, a commercial credit organization.

Over the next five years, Lokpobiri said that the African Energy Bank hopes to secure $ 120 billion. Additional financing is likely to come from sovereign wealth funds, merchants of goods and international banks interested in obtaining shares.

The context of Africa is “different”

Many African leaders realize the need for rapid industrial development and restrictions in restrictions of Western financial supporters, whose bases are increasingly prevented from traditional energy projects.

“The context of Africa is completely different from other places because its economic resources have not been fully developed. Meanwhile, it has made a slight contribution to climate change,” Arke Oqubay, the former adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed.

Africa is responsible for only 4 percent From global carbon emissions to less historical. It also suffers from an inconsistent with the effects of harsh weather events.

“The ethical necessity to reduce emissions is not present in Africa,” said Uzbai.

Tell the island that, “[these] They are countries in a development stage where you cannot suddenly move to green transition … You can not only say that financing is cut and cannot adhere to oil and gas. “

The African Energy Chamber, a group of supporting, also has Argue Africa has a “sovereign right” to develop its natural resources, which, according to the group, includes 125 billion barrels of oil and 620 trillion feet of natural gas.

“until [renewable energy] Funding becomes more easily available, and African countries have the right to expand their oil and gas capabilities … and the international community has the right to say that we cannot do this. “

“To be clear, fossil fuels are not the future,” he said.

Renewed “huge” energy capabilities

Fadel Kabob, assistant professor of economics at the University of Denison in the United States, said that the lack of energy in Africa is “under development.” The significant energy sector in Africa limits the production of fertilizers, steel and cement – the distinctive signs of economic development.

The continent’s inability to industrial exacerbates the difference in global growth.

From 2014 to 2024, GDP (GDP) of the individual in sub -Saharan Africa decreased by more than 10 percent (from $ 1936 to $ 1700). During the same period, the GDP of the global individual increased by 15 percent.

“To climb the development ladder, the continent needs more energy,” said Kabob. “But the best way to move forward is not to double fossil fuels. And increased oil and gas exports as an end, in itself, is what the relative pays for.”

Instead, Africa is believed to take advantage of the remaining fossil fuel infrastructure to build its “huge” potential for renewable energy. Africa has solar energy resources, wind and ground thermal energy, as well as critical metals needed for green technologies.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, Africa’s capabilities to generate renewable energy from Current technologiesThe current costs represent 1000 times the expected demand for electricity in 2040.

Of course, there are restrictions on achieving renewable energy in Africa. But the cost is not one of them, ”Capp said, referring to Reports Which stipulates the operation of most of the new wind projects and solar energy from its fossil fuel counterparts.

Instead, he claims that “religion is the pressure point for not changing Tack.”

Nearly 60 percent of countries in sub -Saharan Africa in Dion, according to the World Bank. “For oil producers on the continent, economic activity is mainly consisting of exporting fossil fuels to stay at the top of debt payment,” Kabob said.

He suggested that by providing oil and gas for industrial operations for other countries, African governments participate in the “economic deviation”.

“Industrial growth requires savings size [cost savings derived from high levels of production]Kabob said. “Africa needs regional development plans where national resources are completed and built across countries … you do not need more oil and gas projects.”

In his opinion, development banks fail to provide a long -term economic vision to the continent. “The green industrial revolution, where the local energies of renovations can be that strategy,” he said.

“Or we can continue to focus on the activity of exporting raw materials and staying stuck in the resource trap.”