Financing Africa's Energy Future: Where Will the Capital Come From?

Africa's energy ambitions are growing. But can the capital required to deliver them keep pace?Hosted by Energy News Network (ENN) in partnership with The Electricity Hub, Let's Talk Energy continues its series recorded live at the Africa Energy Forum 2026 in Cape Town with Somkele Awa-Kalu, Finance Specialist at Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).The conversation moves beyond energy access to the financing needed to turn electricity into economic growth. From Nigeria's $500 million Distributed Renewable Energy Fund to blended finance, local institutional capital and policy reform, Somkele discusses how reducing risk and lowering the cost of capital could move distributed energy into the investment mainstream.With Nigeria pursuing ambitious energy and industrialisation targets, the question is increasingly not whether capital exists, but what it will take to make energy projects investable at scale.