Nigeria has won the bid to host the headquarters of the $5 billion African Energy Bank, after a keenly contested bid with five other countries, including Ghana, Benin Republic, Algeria, South Africa, and Cote d’Ivoire.
The African Energy Bank would finance Africa’s hydrocarbon deposits of oil, gas, and condensates. It would also support energy transition and net Zero 2060 commitments.
The Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday, July 4, 2024.
Speaking at the end of an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), Lokpobiri said the bank would address the funding challenges oil producing in Africa have been contending with.
The minister said: “I want to announce to Nigerians that the Council of Ministers of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) has approved Nigeria to host the headquarters of the African Energy Bank. The biggest challenge we have in Africa as oil-producing countries is funding.
“A short while ago the council of ministers had a meeting and said the time has come for Africa to find solutions to funding the oil and gas space. Based on that the African Energy Bank was conceived.
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“We’ve been taking with our counterparts from all over the countries, those who were competing with us. Plus Nigeria, six countries were competing but today I want to thank all the members of APPO.
“I want to thank Nigerians for your support. I especially thank President Bola Tinubu who gave us the fullest of support to ensure we get to this point of APPO officially giving Nigeria the hosting rights to host the headquarters of the African Energy Bank. I want to use the opportunity to thank other members of APPO for their support.”
Lokpobiri, who noted that the bank would bring to an end, the smear campaign on fossil fuel, added that the bank needs the support of Nigerians and Africans in general to kick-start as soon as possible.
He said: “This is not going to be a bank for Nigeria alone it’s a bank for the entire African continent and I want to assure Nigerians that this is one of the biggest achievements of this administration.
“I want to tell Nigerians we have formally been given, let all of us work together to ensure that this bank takes off on time to the benefit of not only to Nigeria, bit also, the entire continent of Africa.”
The minister assured Nigerians and Africans at large that the establishment of the African Energy Bank would mark a transformative era in meeting energy needs.
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