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Finance Powerhouses Join AEW 2026 as Africa’s Capital Race Accelerates
African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 will feature a strong lineup of finance leaders as investors, private equity executives and development-finance specialists converge on Cape Town to examine the capital requirements behind Africa’s energy and infrastructure ambitions. Their participation comes as the continent seeks to mobilize domestic and international capital for commercially viable projects.
Among the confirmed finance leaders are Nosizwe Nokwe-Macamo, Executive Chairperson and Found of Raise Africa Investments; Taiwo Okwor, Vice President of Energy Resources at the African Finance Corporation (AFC); and Tobi Edun, Senior Associate for Energy Resources at the AFC. Their participation adds perspectives from private equity and development finance to an AEW agenda focused on investment, industrialization and energy-sector growth.
Nokwe-Macamo leads Raise Africa Investments, a black-women-owned and managed private equity firm focused on establishing mid-market business with growth potential. The firm targets companies generating at least R10 million in EBITDA and has built its investment strategy around operational performance, transformation and institutional capital participation.
Raise Africa’s Africa Weather investment remains a strong portfolio milestone, following its participation in First National Bank’s Black Business Growth Fund transformational equity initiative. The transaction expanded Raise Africa’s exposure to environmental data and risk-management services while demonstrating how institutional capital can support private equity and established African businesses.
Nokwe-Macamo also brings extensive experience across strategic leadership, investment analysis, governance, risk management, and mergers and acquisitions. Her broader corporate portfolio includes services as an independent non-executive director of Airports Company South Africa, a position she has held since 2018.
AFC, meanwhile, has entered 2026 with significant financial momentum, reporting a record FY2025 results and expanding its capacity to finance large-scale infrastructure. The institutions subsequently raised a recorded $2 billion syndicated loan in June, upsizing the transaction from $1.6 billion following strong demand from international lenders.
The syndicated facility attracted banks from Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, accounting for 35%, 35%, 25% and 5%, respectively. AFC said the financing will strengthen its ability to scale infrastructure and industrial platforms across critical sectors, reinforcing its growing role in mobilizing global capital for African deployment.
AFC’s FY2025 performance further strengthened that platform, with the corporation reporting major investment expansion and a $700 million capital raise involving ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms (ARISE IIP). The transaction included a partial exit by the AFC and brought Saudi infrastructure investors Vision Invest into ARISE IIP’s shareholder structure.
Bringing direct experience of energy-resource financing and transactions to AEW 2026, Okwor and Edun’s participation comes as African financiers increasingly occupy a central role in funding energy projects, infrastructure platforms and the acquisition of assets being divested by international oil companies.
“Africa’s energy ambitions require capital that can move beyond balance sheets and into bankable, transformative projects,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber. “Bringing leading finance professionals to AEW 2026 will help connect investors, institutions and energy opportunities while ensuring African resources generate greater value for African economies.”
At AEW 2026, taking place October 12–16 in Cape Town, Nokwe-Macamo, Okwor and Edun will join governments, investors, financiers and energy executives from across Africa and internationally. Their participation strengthens the event’s finance and investment representation at a time when mobilizing capital, structuring bankable projects and scaling African ownership are becoming increasingly central to the continent’s energy future.
To find out more about AEW 2026 and register for the event, visit www.aecwee-registration.com/2026.