"With the aim of increasing private sector investment in oil and gas projects, the bank will secure critical financing for new and future oil and gas projects, as well as energy development along the entire value chain", reads the statement sent to Lusa.
In the statement, the amounts involved in the creation of the bank are not disclosed, nor the amounts of share capital that this new bank will have, but the circumstances and motivations for the creation of this financial entity are described.
"Following the divestment of oil companies and the change in global investment trends, the bank comes at a particularly critical time", points out in the text, which reports the signing of the memorandum of understanding, which was signed by the Director of Relations with the Customers of Afreximbank, Rene Awambeng and the secretary general of APPO, Omar Farouk, in the presence of the President of Angola, João Lourenço, African ministers and the executive chairman of the African Chamber of Energy, NJ Ayuk.
The text argues that in recent years there has been a strong reduction in investment expenditure in Africa, which fell from 60 billion dollars in 2014 to 22.5 billion dollars in 2020, with a recovery expected to reach 30 billion dollars this year.
"Despite this increase, there are significant levels of investment that are still needed, and so the role of African financial institutions has been emphasized, as while the developed world advocates an end to fossil fuels due to climate change, Africa continues to face a energy poverty crisis, with more than 600 million people without access to electricity and 900 million without access to clean food cooking solutions", the text highlights.
The African Energy Bank, now proposed, "will operate in the same way as the African Energy Investment Corporation, a development finance institution created to channel resources to the development of the energy sector", explains the statement, which concludes that "the benefits are favoring the development of the African energy sector and, with it, socio-economic growth".
