Our history


Established in 1998, African Energy was initially a printed newsletter conceived by Cross-border Information (CbI), under contract to the Financial Times Energy group and later Platts, to provide an independent source of news and analysis of Africa's energy industries. In 2003, CbI purchased African Energy in a management buy-out.

This is African Energy's story:

Charting growth and development

After achieving its independence from Platts, African Energy's editorial team invested heavily in the newsletter, further developing country-by-country listings for power, oil and gas projects and producing colour maps to illustrate feature articles.

Realising the potential behind its growing library of maps, African Energy's management worked with experienced cartographer journalist David Burles to create the first African Energy Atlas in 2007.

With maps, graphics and articles covering all aspects of the energy sector, and a new edition every 18 months, the Atlas has since become the essential reference book for all energy professionals working in Africa.

Listening to the market

Listening to the needs of African Energy's core subscribers, our experienced editorial team oversaw the evolution of the established newsletter into electronic formats and the development of an extensive network of in-country researchers and associates in over 40 African countries.

With an online presence came an increasing requests for bespoke information and reports. Responding to the market, African Energy transitioned into a provider of consultancy services designed to  support decision-making throughout all stages of the project development and investment cycle.

Since 2010, African Energy has conducted work for a wide range of public and private sector clients including investors, financiers, project developers and multinational organisations such as the African Development Bank-based Infrastructure Consortium for Africa and Africa EU Energy Partnership (AEEP).

At the heart of the debate

In late 2013, African Energy partnered with experienced conference producer Bruno Coburn, to channel its joint expertise into a new affiliate company CbI Meetings.

From its very early days, African Energy's editorial team led by founder Jon Marks was in high demand by media outlets and conference companies for their expertise and insight on key issues.

In the early 2000s, African Energy established AfricaHardball, an Africa-focused political risk roundtable series held under the Chatham House Rule.

Since 2014, the current focus of activities is the Africa Investment Exchange, a series of content-rich expert dialogues for leading investors in Africa’s high growth industries, with flagship annual meetings AIX: Gas and AIX: Power & Renewables.

Delivering data for a challenging environment

Data collection and analysis has been central to African Energy's work since it was established in 1998. 

Close monitoring of project developments, particularly in the power sector, was a contributing factor to African Energy's work with the AEEP Secretariat from 2012 to create a database and monitoring tool to measure progress towards agreed Africa-EU targets for energy access, energy security and renewable energy and energy efficiency.

In September 2017 African Energy Live Data was launched, an innovative and interactive data platform which features continually updated and verified data and profiles on more than 7,000 power plants and projects across Africa and the organisations behind them.

Contact us

Jon Marks
Editorial director

Ajay Ubhi
Head of data

Alex Wark
Head of business development

Tel: +44 (0)1424 721667

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