In a continent brimming with energy potential yet burdened by infrastructure gaps and capital access hurdles, EnergyInc Advisors emerges as a timely and strategic force. Founded after nearly two decades of experience across energy finance, development policy, and capital markets, the firm is built on a mission: to turn Africa’s energy potential into a bankable reality.
In this exclusive interview with BusinessDay, Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, the firm’s CEO, shares the nuanced challenges of energy investing in Africa and the innovative approach the firm is taking to “de-risk complexity.” Dipo Oladehinde brings excerpts.
What motivated you to launch EnergyInc Advisors, and what gap is the firm looking to fill in the current market?
The decision to launch EnergyInc Advisors wasn’t sudden; it was the culmination of nearly two decades of working at the intersection of energy, finance, development and policy across Africa.
Over the years, I noticed a consistent gap. While Africa is rich in projects, we often fall short in making them truly bankable. The ecosystem lacked a homegrown, yet globally fluent advisory platform that deeply understands the capital constraints and regulatory risks in African markets but also speaks the language of institutional investors.
EnergyInc fills that gap. We are not just dealmakers; we are de-riskers. Our mission is to translate potential into investability, especially in sectors like gas infrastructure, upstream oil development and production, renewables, and climate-smart development. What sets us apart is our ability to blend financial structuring, sectoral intelligence, and communication strategy into a single advisory offering that’s tailored for Africa’s complexity.
How are you leveraging your experience and networks to shape EnergyInc’s approach and service offerings?
I’ve had the rare privilege of engaging with Africa’s energy and infrastructure landscape from nearly every vantage point. I’ve led macro strategy and energy research at institutions like Ecobank, helped structure and close upstream energy financing deals at FBNQuest, advised governments and DFIs on policy and capital allocation as African Advisor at IFU, the Danish Development Finance Institution, and managed multi-country infrastructure portfolios in housing, urban infrastructure, utilities and power at Mixta Africa.
I also served as General Manager for Investor Relations at Zenith Bank, where I led a landmark multi-million dollar capital markets transaction and engaged global investors across key financial centres.
Earlier in my career, I worked as an oil and gas risk analyst at Control Risks, advising multinational companies on geopolitical and regulatory risks across Africa’s energy markets. Beyond execution, I’ve represented investor interests directly – as a board member and investment committee advisor for platforms like All On (offgrid energy fund) and UpEnergy (a clean cooking developer) – where I’ve reviewed term sheets, negotiated risk-sharing frameworks, and assessed investment viability. These diverse experiences have shaped EnergyInc’s philosophy. We are fluent in the language of investors, operators, policymakers, and capital markets, and that allows us to design solutions that are not just technically sound but strategically bankable.
We operate like an insider-outsider. Insider in the sense that we understand regulatory bottlenecks, policy environments, and deal politics; outsider in that we bring objectivity and investor perspective to client projects.
Our services are anchored on three core offerings: capital mobilisation and investor readiness; strategic advisory for governments and private sector clients, and thought leadership and communications to position projects credibly.
Our global network, built from roadshows in Europe, DFI engagements, and policy forums, is now being activated to support African-led projects. The majority of our early client mandates appear to be focused on capital mobilisation and investment readiness, but as we become more established, we hope to penetrate the strategic advisory landscape for governments too, in terms of energy sector development
What does “de-risking complexity” mean in practical terms for your clients?
I think it means being both a translator and a tactician. Many African infrastructure or energy projects are stalled not because they aren’t viable, but because they are poorly framed, lack proper governance, or miss the mark in investor communication. For EnergyInc, de-risking involves several layers: structuring capital in the right instruments, e.g. Local vs FX debt, blended finance, equity layering, helping project sponsors articulate value credibly through data-backed narratives, stress-testing projects under realistic regulatory, cost, and offtake scenarios and creating SPV-led or co-investment platforms that reduce risk concentration.
Investors and financiers want to know who is accountable, where the exit is, or the returns are, and how projects can stay resilient. That’s the lens we bring.
What kinds of clients do you work with, and how do you help them become investor-ready?
We work with a diverse portfolio, from governments and multilateral agencies to private developers and growth-stage businesses. One of our recent clients is leading a multi-million dollar phased gas infrastructure rollout across Nigeria. For them, we’re providing capital mobilisation, strategic advisory, and transaction readiness support. Becoming investor-ready is about much more than a fancy pitch deck. We dive deep into the commercial logic, corporate governance, risk mitigation, and scalability plan. We also coach clients on capital raising etiquette, e.g. understanding how DFIs think, how to negotiate term sheets, how to present in roadshows. Many African founders have great ideas but lack the framing, financial storytelling, or compliance alignment. That’s one of the ways we come in.
How is EnergyInc ensuring African countries aren’t left behind in the energy transition?
We believe two things can be true at once: Africa must reduce emissions and build resilience, and also that hydrocarbons remain critical to financing our development.
The global narrative sometimes ignores Africa’s unique starting point. At EnergyInc, we help clients walk this tightrope by: structuring climate finance deals, for example, via carbon markets, concessional loans, or transition bonds; helping companies articulate just energy transition plans, especially those in upstream hydrocarbons, gas-to-power, LPG, or flare reduction and advising governments on blended investment frameworks that attract both clean tech and gas capital.
We also aim to be a storytelling partner by helping African actors reframe their value proposition to international investors who may not fully understand the region’s constraints and opportunities.
How are you connecting local projects with international investors, and what kinds of capital sources are most active in this space?
We operate a curated capital introduction platform, where projects that pass our internal readiness screening get matched with appropriate pools of capital – from development finance institutions (DFIs) to impact funds, family offices, and increasingly, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds looking for yield and alignment.
We also support projects through deal documentation, data room creation, and investor dialogue. Right now, across the energy industry landscape and value chain, the most active capital comes from: DFIs like AfDB,IFC, Afreximbank, and BOI etc.; Climate funds and VCs focused on clean tech; energy-focused private equity with a transition lens, and institutional capital targeting infrastructure yield. We’re in advanced conversations with investors interested in ticket sizes from $5mn to $100mn.
What’s your vision for Africa’s energy infrastructure in the next five years, and how will EnergyInc contribute to that future?
I envision an Africa where infrastructure is no longer a bottleneck to growth but a launchpad. We’ll see more distributed energy solutions, cross-border gas and power infrastructure, and digitally enabled clean tech ecosystems. With the right capital and partnerships, I believe we’ll witness the rise of African energy champions building solutions not just for local consumption but for regional export and global investment.
EnergyInc’s role is to be the bridge between ambition and actualisation. We’re not here to just consult; we’re here to champion, syndicate, and steward capital to the right hands. We want to be Africa’s most trusted partner for energy sector investment.
We welcome partners who are as passionate as we are about Africa’s infrastructure evolution and energy future.
