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Talks With Hyve Group/Africa Oil Week Are Officially Off; African Energy Week (AEW) Scheduled for October 16-20 in Cape Town

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African Energy Week

Having reached out on multiple occasions to Africa Oil Week, African Energy Week will no longer pursue collaboration with the conference or event organizers and will continue to work towards supporting Africa’s energy sector and making energy poverty history at AEW 2023

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, December 12, 2022/APO Group/ — 

While African Energy Week (AEW) (www.AECweek.com) organizers, the African Energy Chamber (AEC), have made continuous efforts to engage with Africa Oil Week (AOW), these efforts have been in vain, with AOW expressing complete disinterest in collaborating towards a singular, pan-African event. As such, talks with AOW are officially over and AEW will press on with its commitment of alleviating energy poverty, improving Africa-directed investment while developing the entire African energy sector and value chain in pursuit of industrialization and socioeconomic growth.

“Am neither a Putz nor a Schmock. We listened to the industry on the need to work together. We have reached out time and time again to AOW in the hopes of collaborating, and yet they refuse to work with us. Sad. They are still bitter that we called them out for abandoning Africa to go to Dubai in 2021 as well as for putting Ministers and officials on their agenda that do not show up and misleading people. They are not even happy that we are participating in a discourse about Africa’s energy future. Let me be clear: Africans deserve every right to have a seat at the table and we should not apologize for demanding it,” states NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the AEC.

“We are not interested in rivalry and polarization but are committed towards supporting our energy sector and making energy poverty history by 2030. This is our goal, and it should be the goal of AOW. So now, AEW will press on with its agenda with the 2023 edition promising to be even bigger, bolder, and better than the editions that preceded it. You just watch what will happen in 2023. We will outwork them, and we will compete to promote every African country and we will support our energy sector like never before,” concluded Ayuk.

AEW 2023 will push for an energy mix, the utilization of oil, gas and coal to solve our ongoing energy crisis

AEW has emerged as the biggest gathering for African policymakers and governments, public sector companies and regulators, regional and international players as well as private sector executives and investors to discuss the state of play of Africa’s energy future. AEW 2022 featured African presidents to the likes of H.E. Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda and H.E. Filipe Nyusi, President of Mozambique, as well as ministers from South Africa, South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Mozambique, Congo-Brazzaville, Ghana, Niger and many more, alongside delegations from OPEC, the U.S, the European Commission, Russia and Saudi Arabia. This year 26 delegations were present; 47 ministries, 4,200 attendees – of which 81% were from outside of South Africa and 19% in-country – 44 sponsors; 20 partners; and 17 exhibitors.

Building on the 2022 edition’s success, AEW 2023 plans to increase these figures two-fold, diversifying conference topics, hosting a multitude of country delegations and private sector executives, while offering new and improved networking forums that promise new opportunities for partnerships and collaborations. Making energy poverty history by 2030 will require significant levels of investment, and as such, AEW 2023 will focus on deal signing, connecting investors with African opportunities while making a strong case for African-driven financial agreements.

In the 2022-2023 context, African and global energy demand continues to soar, prices remain unstable, while supply ever-volatile, emphasizing the need and role of African producing countries to ramp up exploration, bring new supplies on the market while enhancing infrastructure and distribution networks both intra- and inter-continentally. The year 2022 has made clear the role African hydrocarbon resources will play in the world’s future energy mix, and while global pressures continue to mount with regards to the energy transition and the abandonment of fossil fuels, Africa’s oil and gas remains key for driving economic growth and prosperity.

As such, AEW 2023 will feature strong discussions on the need for an integrated energy mix in Africa, one that incorporates oil, gas, coal and renewables energies. As an event, AEW welcomes the role renewables play in Africa, but also recognizes that the intermittent nature of these resources will essentially restrict any meaningful efforts of making energy poverty history by 2030. In this scenario, the utilization of a mixed resource pool will ensure the adequate resources are available for the continent to industrialize and grow.

In 2023, AEW will push forward with driving new investment in African energy; making a case for financing our own future; enhancing local content and the participation of women in energy; while driving a just and inclusive energy transition on the back of every resource available on the continent. AEW 2023 will push for an energy mix, the utilization of oil, gas and coal to solve our ongoing energy crisis.

The 2023 edition of Africa’s premier event for the oil and gas industry, AEW, will take place from October 16-20 in Cape Town under the same mandate of making energy poverty history by 2030. Since the event’s inauguration in 2021, organizers have been committed to providing an Africa-based platform where discussions on Africa’s energy future can be held and driven by African stakeholders. In 2023, this agenda will continue, with the event now representing the biggest of its kind to ever take place on the African continent. 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Week (AEW).

Business

Africa’s Grid Constraints Come into Focus as Regional Markets Push Toward Integration

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Africa

Regional power pools are advancing and renewable pipelines are growing, but the regulatory and financial architecture needed to connect them remains the continent’s most critical infrastructure gap – an issue central to the Power Africa Today conference at AEW 2026

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 25, 2026/APO Group/ –Africa’s electricity demand is projected to nearly double to 2,291 TWh by 2050, requiring an estimated $30 billion in transmission and grid infrastructure investment to unlock and integrate new generation capacity. Yet across the continent, grid systems are struggling to keep pace with rapidly expanding supply pipelines and rising demand.

In Nigeria, repeated nationwide grid collapses as recently as February 2026 underscore the fragility of aging transmission infrastructure. In East Africa, tower failures along the 428 km Loiyangalani-Suswa line temporarily stranded output from Lake Turkana Wind Power – Africa’s largest wind installation. Meanwhile, demand growth pressures are accelerating across North Africa, where electricity consumption is expected to rise by around 50% by 2035, driven by urbanization, desalination projects, and climate-related temperature increases.

Despite these constraints, generation investment continues to accelerate across Africa, particularly in renewables, gas-to-power and hybrid systems. However, without equivalent investment in transmission and interconnection, much of this new capacity risks being underutilized or stranded. This growing imbalance between generation and grid capacity is driving a sharper focus on system-wide planning and regional market design – issues that will be central to the newly launched Power Africa Today conference at African Energy Week 2026. The platform will bring together policymakers, utilities, investors and developers to explore how regional interconnection, cross-border trading frameworks and financing structures can better align generation growth with grid expansion.

Power Markets Experiment with Reform

Alongside infrastructure challenges, Africa’s electricity sector is undergoing gradual – but uneven – market reform. Most countries still operate vertically integrated systems dominated by state utilities, but a growing number are introducing competitive frameworks to attract private capital and improve efficiency.

Zimbabwe opened its electricity market to full private participation across generation, transmission and distribution in 2025, targeting $9 billion in new investment. South Africa is advancing one of the continent’s most ambitious grid expansion programs, with plans for 14,500 km of new transmission lines and 133,000 MVA of transformer capacity by 2034, alongside mechanisms designed to crowd in private financing. Kenya, meanwhile, has introduced open access regulations enabling independent power producers to wheel electricity directly to multiple off-takers, reshaping how generation assets interface with the grid.

Interconnected electricity markets are the foundation of Africa’s industrial future

Regional Integration Remains Fragmented

Efforts to connect Africa’s fragmented power systems are progressing, though at different speeds across regions. In Southern Africa, the World Bank’s RETRADE SAPP program, approved in 2025, is deploying $12 million to strengthen renewable integration and transmission capacity across 12 member states. In East Africa, the Ethiopia–Kenya–Tanzania Electricity Highway is now in trial operations at up to 2,000 MW, marking a significant step toward a more interconnected regional grid.

West Africa is also moving toward deeper integration, with permanent synchronization of the West Africa Power Pool expected in 2026. Analysts, including the African Finance Corporation, argue that such synchronization is critical to unlocking large-scale hydropower potential and industrial demand across the region. Longer term, full synchronization between the Eastern and Southern African power pools – targeted for the end of 2026 – could create one of the world’s largest cross-border electricity trading corridors.

Building Bankable Financial Architectures

While interconnection is advancing, infrastructure alone is not enough to create investable electricity markets. Investors consistently cite the lack of standardized offtake structures, creditworthy counterparties, and cross-border payment guarantees as key barriers to scaling capital deployment.

New models are emerging to address these constraints. Africa GreenCo, operating across Zambia, Namibia and South Africa, is helping to aggregate independent power producers under a single creditworthy intermediary, standardizing power purchase agreements and reducing counterparty risk. At a broader level, AUDA-NEPAD estimates that Africa requires around $30 billion in additional investment to complete priority transmission corridors and establish three fully interconnected regional trading blocs by 2030.

“Interconnected electricity markets are the foundation of Africa’s industrial future,” said NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “The question at Africa Energy Week is not whether integration is possible – the evidence is already there. The question is which regulatory frameworks and financial structures will get projects to financial close, and which markets will be ready when capital is looking to move.”

The Power Africa Today conference will run alongside AEW 2026, taking place October 12–16 in Cape Town, and will focus on the regulatory, financial and infrastructural architecture needed to build interconnected electricity markets capable of attracting institutional capital and delivering reliable, cross-border power at scale.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

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African Development Bank Group and La Francophonie Sign Partnership Agreement to Promote Youth Employment in Francophone Africa

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The agreement was signed during a meeting between the Secretary General of La Francophonie, Louise Mushikiwabo, and African Development Bank Group President, Dr Sidi Ould Tah in Paris, France

PARIS, France, June 25, 2026/APO Group/ –The African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) and The International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) on Wednesday entered a strategic partnership to strengthen digital skills, employability, and entrepreneurship of young people and women in five African countries: Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar.

 

The agreement was signed during a meeting between the Secretary General of La Francophonie, Louise Mushikiwabo, and African Development Bank Group President, Dr Sidi Ould Tah in Paris, France. The agreement will address a major challenge faced by countries in the Francophone world and across Africa: providing young people with access to opportunities offered by the digital economy and fostering the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs.

The partnership calls for the implementation of training programs in digital professions and entrepreneurship, in fields such as web and mobile development, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and data analysis. Participants will also receive guidance toward employment and self-employment, as well as support for innovation and business creation, notably through training camps, prototyping activities, and partnerships with incubators and accelerators.

The African Development Bank Group and OIF will also work with national authorities in these five countries and training institutions to sustainably strengthen local capacities and promote ownership of the programs by national stakeholders. An initial pilot phase, lasting 12 to 24 months, will be rolled out in the five partner countries, followed by a gradual expansion to other member states depending on the results achieved.

The African Development Bank Group is pursuing a bold agenda based on “Four Cardinal Points” developed by Dr Ould Tah, the third of which is ‘Turning Demographics into a Dividend.’ This is about strategically converting Africa’s rapidly growing and youthful population into a decisive engine of inclusive growth, productivity, and innovation through large-scale investment in human capital—particularly youth and women.

 

It sees Africa’s growing young population not as a risk, but as a major asset. With the right policies and investments, this potential can create jobs, help small businesses grow, bring more informal businesses into the formal economy, and equip young people with the skills needed for the future. By investing more in education, science and technology, vocational training, entrepreneurship, finance, and digital tools, Africa can help its people drive economic transformation, stay competitive, and build lasting, resilient growth.

The OIF said the agreement marked the first concrete step in its initiative to mobilize innovative and additional funding for its most impactful projects.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

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Paddles up! Hong Kong marks 50 Years of international dragon boat thrills

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Hong Kong

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 25 June 2026 – With top teams from around the world gearing up for the hotly contested Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races this weekend (June 27-28), participants and spectators can expect a bumper programme of action, fun and entertainment along the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui – one of the city’s most vibrant districts known for its iconic skyline views and tourist attractions.

There is much to celebrate. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races as well as 35th anniversary of both the co-organiser, Hong Kong China Dragon Boat Association, and the sanctioning body, International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF). The IDBF added to the occasion by announcing earlier this year the relocation of its headquarters back to Hong Kong.

Riding on the wave of excitement, the organiser, Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), extended the annual Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Festival period to 13 days (June 19 – July 1), beginning on the historic Tuen Ng Festival (Dragon Boat Festival) and concluding on July 1, which is the 29th anniversary of the Establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

As the headline international flagship event of “Hong Kong Summer Fun”, Dr Peter Lam, Chairman of the HKTB, said the Festival not only ran over a longer period, but also featured a stronger race line-up and more vibrant entertainment programmes than in previous years, offering an experience found only in Hong Kong for locals and visitors, while showcasing Hong Kong’s position as the Events Capital of Asia.

More than 220 teams from 16 countries and regions will compete for top honours in the world‑renowned setting of Victoria Harbour. This year’s event also introduces the special 50th Anniversary Fishermen Invitational Cup and the 50th Anniversary Championship, paying tribute to the traditional spirit of dragon boat racing.

Visitors will be able to enjoy a series of thematic activities along the Avenue of Stars, including a 22-metre traditional wooden dragon boat, a dragon boat-themed installation in collaboration with the new film Minions & Monsters, live music performances and a line-up of intangible cultural heritage performances, including martial art Wing Chun, Chinese juggling diabolo, traditional musical instruments ruan and guzheng.

Highlighting Hong Kong’s reputation as the birthplace of modern international dragon boat racing, as well as its strengths as a global hub city, the IDBF has taken a significant step in its long‑term global strategy with the formal incorporation of International Dragon Boat Federation Limited in Hong Kong on 29 April 2026.

“Incorporation in Hong Kong is not a conclusion, but a beginning. It anchors our Federation in the city where our international story started and strengthens our ability to serve our members and the global dragon boat family,” said Claudio Schermi, President of the IDBF.

As part of this new chapter, the IDBF has applied for funding under “the Pilot Scheme to Strengthen the Presence of Hong Kong in Asian and International Sports Associations”, which was recently introduced by the HKSAR Government’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau. The Pilot Scheme is an initiative designed to support Asian and international sports associations establishing their headquarters or regional headquarters in the city.

The Dragon Boat Festival has a long and colourful history dating back more than two thousand years. Held each year on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the day commemorates the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

According to legend, Qu committed suicide for his beliefs by throwing himself into the Luo River. The villagers nearby raced out on their dragon boats, banging gongs and drums to scare away fish and other underwater creatures to stop them from eating Qu’s body. The tradition continues to this day, with dragon boat competitions taking place at locations across Hong Kong, each reflecting the unique characteristics of its neighbourhood.

Traditional dragon boat treats feature prominently during the festival, notably zongzi. These glutinous rice dumplings, traditionally wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed or boiled, are widely available during the festive period.

 

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