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Afreximbank and the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation formally established the Africa Energy Bank at its inaugural general meeting in Abuja on 31 October, appointing Helmy Ghazi as its first president and constituting a board for a lender that will finance the energy value chain from exploration to distribution.

Engr. Chijioke Okwuokenye, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc, on the waste-to-power plant AEDC has begun discussing with the Federal Capital Development Authority and its plan to close its metering gap by the first quarter of 2028, as demand around Abuja grows faster than the network built to carry it.

Bwalya Chilufya-Musonda, Partner at Bowmans Zambia, on why private investors are turning to Zambia’s power sector, as the National Energy Compact sets out $11.9bn of generation and transmission investment to 2030, with $9.5bn expected from the private sector and installed capacity planned to more than double to 10,000MW.

Owen Silavwe, Managing Director of Copperbelt Energy Corporation, on financing Zambia’s largest solar plant through CEC’s own green bond and on the cross-border trade it sees with the DRC, as the company hosts investors in Livingstone as Country Host of the Zimbabwe-Zambia Energy Projects Summit.

Aquaterra Energy has designed and fabricated a subsea template for Emadeb Energy’s offshore platform in Nigeria within six months, so that drilling can begin before the rest of the conductor-supported structure, now being fabricated at a Nigerian yard, is installed over the wellheads later this year.

Côte d’Ivoire’s energy minister, Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, laid foundation stones for 152MWp of solar in the north of the country between 22 and 24 October, from a Katiola plant whose lenders are due to close financing within weeks to plants led by Ivorian capital at M’Bengué and by the Emirati group AMEA Power at Binguébougou.

Nigeria’s federal government, the UK and state governments are seeking private investment in small run-of-river hydropower, presenting a draft National Small Hydropower Policy in Abuja alongside three pilot projects, among them a 100MW solar and hydro hybrid at Ikere Gorge in Oyo State expected to reach financial close by mid-2027.

Zambia’s Rural Electrification Authority opened the call for proposals on 15 October for its Results-Based Financing Facility under the World Bank-backed ASCENT Zambia programme, which pays private providers once their solar home systems and clean cooking appliances have been independently verified, with targets of 120,000 and 60,000 households.

Tanzania has made its first natural gas discovery since 2015, with Energy Minister Juma Homera putting the Kasa find at Mnazi Bay in Mtwara at 223 billion cubic feet, and operator Maurel & Prom, which holds 60% alongside TPDC, expecting first production from the new well from November.

Burkina Faso’s Council of Ministers has adopted a decree creating Faso Wa-Fulu, a presidential initiative for universal access to electricity by 2030, with more than CFA2,800 billion budgeted over ten years and 44 electrification brigades that will employ 1,200 people, in a country where 34.2% of people had access in 2024.