There’s no stopping project work in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana’s Jubilee oil field is the most sought-after in the world, the oil frontier territory along the east coast is increasingly viable, and power is still massively underprovided.
With its energy crisis unlikely to end soon, both new and existing investment will gain traction. “It’s going to be a pretty good year for African power,” says one South-Africa based partner. “There are a lot of deals that are very close to getting there and a lot of DFIs (Development Finance Institutions) are under a lot of pressure to get these projects going.”
The biggest drivers in resources remain China’s continuing penetration and the arrival of other national oil companies looking for security of supply and placating African governments with infrastructure-for-resources deals.
The dominant players have steered away from these schemes as it means selling into a domestic...