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Affordable and abundant: Energy Leadership Forum returns as excitement builds for AEW 2026
The global gateway to Africa's energy dialogue and deals, Africa Energy Week will bring thousands of energy leaders, global investors, government officials and policymakers together in Cape Town across 12-16 October 2026 under the theme of "Affordable and Abundant Energy Additions”.
Africa’s energy sector is rising with confidence on the global stage amid shifting geopolitics, intensifying trade disputes, and a global push to diversify supply chains, says the team behind Africa Energy Week (AEW), a premier international platform for driving policy dialogue, dealmaking, and investment on the continent.
Placing Africa at the center of the global energy conversation, the sixth edition of AEW, themed "Affordable and Abundant Energy Additions”, will be held across 12-16 October at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC 1) in South Africa.
“From upstream expansion to downstream industrialisation and power generation, the continent is no longer waiting on the sidelines - it is shaping global energy markets,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber.
A trailblazer in the African energy sector, Ayuk says AEW provides the platform where African voices, African projects and African solutions take centre stage.
It is a defining time for the African energy sector, say organisers, with international partners increasingly turning toward Africa as a strategic energy anchor. Regulatory reform across the continent, new oil and gas discoveries,and strengthened global alliances have significantly enhanced Africa’s competitiveness, positioning it as one of the most attractive destinations for foreign energy capital in today’s climate.
During this defining era, results within Africa’s energy sector will depend not only on policy reforms but on the quality of engagement, collaboration, and strategic knowledge exchange amongst those positioned to drive implementation and influence outcomes, says project finance and energy expert Dr Tominiyi Owolabi.
The Managing Partner at leading African firm Olaniwun Ajayi, Owolabi has nearly three decades of expertise providing counsel on some of the largest, most complex and market-defining energy transactions in Nigeria. At AEW, he will chair sector leaders Osayande Igiehon of Heirs Energies, Dr Ian Cloke of Afentra, and Oladimeji Bashorun of Energia in a Tuesday afternoon session addressing “Re-energising Onshore & Brownfield Assets: Production, Recovery & Gas-to-Industry”.
Olaniwun Ajayi will also host a key side event during AEW, with the return of the Energy Leadership Forum, this year themed “Positioning Nigeria for Energy Leadership in Africa: From Reforms to Results”, on Wednesday 14 October.
This year’s AEW kicks off with a series of workshops and Investor Forum events on Monday, 12 October, addressing topics and themes including AI & Data Adoption for African Energy Companies and Understanding Petroleum Sector Risk. Several hundred industry speakers, government ministers, and VIPs will take part across the week, alongside more than 9,000 attendees, and over 1,500 global companies.
Across the course of the week, AEW attendees will enjoy a multi-stage programme, with various tracks addressing the full energy value chain. AEW Town Hall sessions will convene senior policymakers, regulators and private-sector leaders in a high-level roundtable format aimed at aligning fiscal regimes, scaling indigenous operators and accelerating the shift from resource extraction to industrialisation.
More than a dozen Energy Finance Forum and Downstream & Petchem Forum sessions will examine dual bottlenecks of capital access and underdeveloped value chains. Another thirty plus sessions will be held across the Upstream E&P Forum, Powering Africa Forum, and Energy Additions Forum tracks at AEW 2026, ranging across topics from new gas frontiers to rise of data centres to energy security.
In addition, Country Spotlights will showcase active licensing rounds, regulatory reforms, and investment pipelines across key markets, and there will be many other panel discussions, seminars and masterclasses, and presentations across Workshops, Renegade Intel, The Drill Room, and The Innovation Hub events.
A number of side events will also be held, ranging from a massive pre-conference Amapiano and Afrobeats concert driving the narrative of a just energy transition and the need for Africa to have control of its own narrative, through cocktail receptions, a Women in Energy Power Lunch, nightly after parties, an Olaniwun Ajayi-hosted Energy Leadership Forum directed towards converting policy ambition and sector reforms into measurable outcomes, and the African Energy Awards & Gala Dinner.
Africa Legal is proud to be a media partner of AEW 2026, and to be able to offer our readers an exclusive, strong discount on standard delegate rates for this year's event. Contact wendy@africa-legal.com for further details.
For more information on the Energy Leadership Forum, themed “Positioning Nigeria for Energy Leadership in Africa: From Reforms to Results”, visit here.