The institutional architecture around African power investment has grown considerably more sophisticated.
In recent years, multilateral lenders, blended finance vehicles, law firms, and energy researchers have shaped project structuring and financing.
Speakers confirmed for the Power Africa Today conference during African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 in Cape Town, October 12-16, represent the complete investment ecosystem at work across the continent.
The World Bank’s role in shaping Africa’s energy investment landscape is well established.
Infrastructure Program Leader Mirlan Aldayarov joins Power Africa Today as the institution expands its energy sector engagement.
Aldayarov is a senior energy specialist who leads investment operations within the Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice.
He was closely involved in a $1.5 billion development policy loan approved for South Africa in July 2026.
It supported electricity sector reforms and grid governance.
His participation at the conference connects multilateral financing to the national reforms.
These reforms are being discussed across the program.
The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) has emerged as a leading mobilizer of blended finance for electrification.
Carol Koech serves as Vice President for Africa at GEAPP.
GEAPP and its partners have raised $100 million for Mission 300.
Mission 300 aims to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by the decade’s end.
Koech joined GEAPP in August 2025 after leading Schneider Electric’s East Africa business.
She brings two decades of energy-access experience to the Power Africa Today lineup.
Mphokolo Makara is the CEO of the SA-H2 Fund, managed by Climate Fund Managers and Invest International. He represents the next generation of blended finance vehicles targeting African energy infrastructure. The fund targets $1 billion in green hydrogen investment in South Africa. It recently backed the country’s first wastewater-to-green-methanol facility. It previously committed $20 million to the Hive Hydrogen Coega green ammonia project. Thus, Makara’s presence at Power Africa Today highlights how blended finance can unlock capital for emerging energy technologies.
South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) adds a domestic DFI perspective. Nina Yose, Acting Divisional Executive for Mining, Metals, Infrastructure and Energy, joins the conference as the IDC continues to finance energy and infrastructure projects across the country, including through the Junior Mining Exploration Fund that she oversees. The IDC’s role in channeling public capital into projects that are not yet fully commercially bankable complements the multilateral and private capital represented elsewhere on the lineup.
Rounding out the group from the advisory and research side, John Ngunjiri, an Associate in Norton Rose Fulbright’s energy and infrastructure M&A practice and a member of the African Energy Chamber’s Advisory Board, brings legal and transactional expertise. Norton Rose Fulbright, ranked in Band 1 for Africa-wide projects and energy by Chambers Global in 2026, advises on the deal structures and project finance arrangements that underpin large-scale African energy investments. Silvia Macri, Associate Director for Power and Renewables Research at S&P Global Energy, also joins the lineup with more than 12 years of coverage across African and Middle Eastern energy markets.
Says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, “The speakers at Power Africa Today reflect the full chain of expertise needed to get African power projects built – from the DFIs structuring the risk to the lawyers closing the deals to the analysts pricing the market.”
Power Africa Today brings together policymakers, utilities, and developers. It addresses regulatory, financial, and infrastructural challenges of building interconnected electricity markets across the continent.
The conference takes place as part of AEW 2026 at CTICC 1 in Cape Town from October 12-16.
