AEF 2025: Key Insights & Opportunities

Cape Town, June 17–20, 2025 

The Africa Energy Forum (AEF) 2025 brought together energy leaders, policymakers, financiers, and developers from across the continent and beyond with a shared vision: to amplify a united voice for Africa’s accelerating energy transition. 

Toluwalope Adeyinka, our Business Development Manager at EM-ONE, joined this year’s edition as part of the Ontario & Global Affairs Canada Delegation, a group of dedicated and ambitious Canadian companies and policy makers, to spotlight our innovative infrastructure solutions and build strategic partnerships. 

From policy-shaping panels to investor-focused discussions, AEF 2025 offered deep insights into the future of clean, resilient, and locally financed power systems. 

Below are the top highlights from the forum: 

Pitching pipelines not pilots 

Across the week, stakeholders demonstrated serious commitments and an eagerness to finance impactful infrastructure that supports both energy access targets and investor confidence. This was never more evident than at the Global Affairs Canada pitch session, where we pitched our 350 MW project pipeline under Embedded Energy for Industry (EEI) to key industry financiers. 

Toluwalope pitched one of the first projects under our EEI portfolio, a 15 MWp solar + storage C&I microgrid that will power an industrial cluster of consumer product goods and packaging factories in Northern Nigeria. 

At EM-ONE we are exploring collaborations with forward-thinking financiers who are committed to unlocking capital through blended finance, guarantees, and local currency mechanisms.

Ambitious Focus: Scaling Up Projects 

One of the strongest themes of the forum was the growing demand for large-scale energy infrastructure, particularly Independent Power Projects (IPPs) greater than 50MW. 

The session From MW to GW: Accelerating Deployment of Renewable Energy in Africa reinforced the need to shift from one-off pilots to scalable projects with impact and bankable pipelines. Our conversations with fellow attendees highlighted the clear consensus too: the time for scaling up is now. 

Across the week, stakeholders demonstrated serious commitments and an eagerness to finance impactful infrastructure that supports both energy access targets and investor confidence. 

EM-ONE is well positioned to lead this industry-wide momentum. With our growing 350 MW project pipeline and a decade of experience in engineering and delivering integrated energy systems across West Africa, we have the global expertise and local experience to implement high-impact, large-capacity energy projects from essential services to industrial infrastructure. 

Partnerships for Progress 

It was an honour and a testiment to our teams impactful work to join a closed-door session with Nigeria’s Minister of Power - Adebayo Adelabu. Continuing our direct engagement on national energy priorities and private sector collaboration.

It is always energizing to discuss the large-scale commitments the Nigerian government has to their energy future, and how EM-ONE can continue to help lead this on collaborative projects.

De-Risking Local Currency Markets 

Currency risk continues to be a challenge across African energy markets, but it doesn’t need to be a barrier. At AEF 2025, financial innovation was another consistent theme, with stakeholders emphasizing the importance of expanding local currency markets and de-risking foreign exchange issues. 

At EM-ONE, we continue to develop and innovate ways to incorporate these approaches, ensuring energy projects are both value for money and resilient with our local insights into this demanding market. We are exploring collaborations with forward-thinking financiers who are committed to unlocking capital through blended finance, guarantees, and local currency mechanisms. 

Looking beyond AEF 2025 

AEF 2025 reaffirmed the critical role of innovation in technology and finance with strong project partnerships for Africa’s energy infrastructure to leapfrog into the future. 

Finding a unified voice around this isn’t difficult. Mission 300, a key backer of AEF 2025, bringing such momentum and determination to connect 300 million people across sub-Saharan Africa to energy by 2030.  

This initiative and all the discussion at AEF 2025 represent a framework we can use now to deliver national policy alignment, investment coordination, and public-private partnerships.