Energy Capital & Power (ECP) announced that the fourth edition of the Invest in African Energy (IAE) Forum will return to Paris on May 11–12, 2026, with a sharpened focus on frontier exploration, early-stage project development and upstream investment opportunities. Building on three highly successful editions, IAE continues to serve as the premier platform for global explorers, investors and African energy leaders to connect, collaborate and catalyze the next wave of discoveries. 

Held in Europe’s leading financial and diplomatic center, IAE 2026 will convene energy ministers, national oil companies, utilities, regulators and global investors for two days of strategic dialogue and high-level engagement. This edition will introduce an enhanced focus on the exploration community and its broader ecosystem – from geologists and service companies, to governments and capital providers. With over 150 oil and gas blocks available for bidding across more than 10 African markets in 2025, the continent is experiencing an exploration resurgence, presenting opportunities in both mature and frontier regions. IAE will serve as the premier platform for accessing these opportunities, exploring the latest data rooms, showcasing seismic and subsurface innovation and fostering early-stage collaboration among IOCs and NOCs.  

To address Africa’s persistent reliance on imported refined petroleum products, which accounted for an amount of US$30billion annually in petroleum import costs due to inadequate refining, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has launched a US$3 Billion Revolving Intra-African Oil Trade Financing Programme to finance the purchase of refined petroleum products by African and Caribbean oil buyers.

As a revolving facility, we expect it to finance about US$10 billion to US$14 billion of Intra-African petroleum imports. This programme seeks to leverage the growing refining capacity that Afreximbank has helped establish across the continent, while aligning with the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, which includes facilitating intra-African trade, promoting industrialisation, and creating jobs on the continent.

By deploying innovative trade finance and supply chain solutions tailored to key stakeholders’ needs in terms of tenure, price format and logistics requirements, this initiative supports Afreximbank’s strategic goals of advancing energy security, strengthening regional value chains, and fostering economic resilience within the continent and the Caribbean.

A coalition of global philanthropies announced the launch of the Beginnings Fund, a new philanthropic initiative committed to accelerating maternal and newborn survival across Africa.  

With a focus on sustainability and local ownership, the Beginnings Fund will work in partnership with African governments, national organizations, and experts to prevent over 300,000 deaths and enhance access to quality care for 34 million mothers and babies by 2030.  

 The establishment of the Beginnings Fund is part of a joint philanthropic commitment of nearly $600 million for maternal and newborn survival, including $100 million in direct funding for initiatives that further the Beginnings Fund’s mission. This joint commitment was enabled by a major grant from the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity that unlocked matched funding from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Delta Philanthropies, The ELMA Foundation, Gates Foundation, joined by funding from Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Patchwork Collective, and others.  

On Thursday 24 and Friday 25 of April a visit of the Bale Mountains National Park welcomed more than 20 foreign ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps established in Ethiopia. This trip of 48h was organized by the Ethiopian Ministery of Tourism in association with The UNESCO to promote the Park.

Indeed, the National Park situated 400km southeast of the capital contains a diversity of landscapes and the highest pick in Ethiopia southern highlands. This Park was nominated in 2009 as a world heritage site by the UNESCO and later in 2023 as the 13th Ethiopian sites in UNESCO World Heritage. This visit was for Ethiopia an occasion to show the natural and cultural wealth of Ethiopia to the diplomatic corps. It also was for the country a good way to promote its huge potential of the country in the tourism sector.