Nigeria’s oil bid round gets praise as AEC raises investment committee to drive finance for Africa

THE AFRICAN ENERGY CHAM BER (AEC) has announced the nomination of its Investment Advisory Committee (IAC). Members of the Investment Committee serve in their personal capacity and gather a wide range of expertise in finance, legal and consulting. Together, they will play a key role in supporting the African Energy Chamber’s investment outreach initiatives, the chamber said in a statement made available to Business A.M. The IAC members include: René Awambeng, global head, client relations at the Afreximbank; Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, managing director, EnergyInc Advisors and senior Africa advisor, IFU Danish Investment Fund; Abongwa Ndumu, former oil executive and energy consultant. Others are: Robert Erlich, partner and executive director – Upstream, Cayo Energy LP; Folarin Lajumoke, vice president – Africa, ION; Nosizwe Nokwe-Macamo, executive chairman & founder, Raise Africa Investments, and Rachelle Yayi, CEO, Afara Solutions. With billions of dollars required every year to upgrade its energy infrastructure and fight energy poverty, Africa needs to successfully mobilize a wide variety of capital and financing. In doing so, African energy markets should be engaging with a broader range of capital providers, from traditional lenders to global institutional investors and private equity firms to venture capitalists. The energy resurgence of the continent following the Covid-19 will require all stakeholders to come together and find new ways to structuring deals and raising capital for the benefits of local economies and jobs creation, the chamber said. According to NJ Ayuk, African Energy Chamber’s executive chairman, the investment committee is central to the chamber’s objective of providing a bridge between investors and the continent’s energy industry. “Africa has limitless investment opportunities across energy sources and across value-chains, and there is a pressing need to communicate better with financiers and investors to increase investments in the continent,” Ayuk said. Meanwhile, AEC has lauded Nigeria’s ongoing marginal oilfields bid round as coming out to be a success. It is the first in the last 20 years since the country held a bid round for marginal fields. Reports say about 600 bidders are jostling for the country’s 57 marginal fields. However, AEC warns that access to financing the development of such fields will remain a key challenge for the operators. Landmark gas projects across Africa have managed to attract regional and global capital in recent months and years. From Senegal to Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea, Africa has demonstrated its ability to attract funding. However, investment is still falling short of market needs. African Energy companies in Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Mozambique and South Sudan, Uganda and South Africa continue to see capital as their biggest obstacle when it comes to developing African natural resources or even competing for service contracts.