Group Chief Executive Officer of Oando Plc, Wale Tinubu, has said the African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank, has emerged as the largest financier of oil and gas projects on the African continent, with more than $25 billion committed to the sector.
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Tinubu made the assertion in London while speaking at the Royal African Society’s conference on the next 125 years of mining, oil and gas in Africa.
Reflecting on the financing challenges facing African businesses, the Oando chief said the continent’s companies must first strengthen their governance structures and transparency if they want to attract long-term international capital.
“Afreximbank is now the largest financier of oil and gas on this continent, with more than twenty-five billion dollars committed,” Tinubu wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.
He recalled Oando’s experience about two decades ago when the company sought a listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, saying the process forced it to adopt stronger international governance and reporting standards.
According to him, the company was required to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards, appoint independent directors and regularly explain its performance to international investors.
“Get on a plane and explain ourselves, quarter after quarter, to people who had never set foot in Lagos. It was uncomfortable. It was also the most valuable thing we ever did to ourselves,” he said.
Tinubu said he returned to that experience during the Royal African Society discussion after being asked what African companies need in order to scale.
“The answer begins at home,” he said.
According to him, many African businesses started as family-controlled or informally governed enterprises, creating difficulties for investors seeking to assess and underwrite long-term risks.
“Much of African enterprise started out fractured; family-held, informally governed, structurally invisible to anyone underwriting a twenty-year risk. Global capital hesitates over what it cannot examine,” Tinubu said.
He argued that corporate governance should not merely be viewed as a regulatory obligation, but as a mechanism for making African businesses understandable and credible to investors across the world.
Tinubu said African companies must therefore build structures that allow investors to properly examine their management, finances and long-term prospects.
He, however, maintained that responsibility does not rest solely with African companies.
According to him, changes in the global financing environment have also played a significant role in reshaping how energy projects on the continent are funded.
Tinubu said European lenders had substantially reduced their participation in financing African hydrocarbon projects as part of their net-zero commitments.
“When European lenders withdrew from African hydrocarbons in pursuit of their own net zero commitments, they did not end demand for African energy,” he said.
“They ended their participation in it. African institutions stepped into that space.”
He cited Afreximbank’s growing role as evidence of the increasing importance of African financial institutions in financing the continent’s energy development.
Tinubu said the shift demonstrated that African institutions were becoming increasingly important in filling financing gaps created by the withdrawal of some international lenders from fossil-fuel projects.
The Oando GCEO said African companies had also undertaken the difficult process of making themselves more attractive to investors by improving governance, transparency and corporate structures.
He stressed that access to capital remains central to the continent’s development, particularly in sectors requiring large, long-term investments.
“What does not get financed does not get built,” Tinubu said.
He added that Africa still has significant infrastructure and energy needs and opportunities for investors willing to work with African companies.
“There is still much to build in Africa for those willing to build it with African companies,” he said.
Tinubu’s remarks come amid continuing debate over how African countries can finance oil, gas and other major infrastructure projects as some Western financial institutions reduce their exposure to hydrocarbons and place greater emphasis on renewable energy and net-zero targets.
His position is that stronger governance by African companies, combined with the growing financial capacity of institutions such as Afreximbank, could play a critical role in ensuring that major projects across the continent continue to attract funding.
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