Nigeria, April 18 -- On 22 January, 2024, Ambassador Nicholas Agbo Ella poured over heaps of files in his new office on the ninth floor of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Towers in Abuja. The edifice which houses the Ministry of Petroleum Resources symbolises Nigeria's leadership of the oil and gas industry on the African continent.

Mr Ella had just resumed duties as the permanent secretary of the Ministry without any handover note from his predecessor. However, the deadline for a crucial continental contest - the hosting right for the Africa Energy Bank (AEB) headquarters - was fast approaching. The $5 billion bank is a brainchild of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Petroleum Producers Orga...