Past AEF delegates

Over 2000 delegates have attended the Africa Energy Forum, with around 50% coming from Africa. To take full advantage of the business opportunities provided by the forum, many organizations send more than one delegate.

• AEF2009 organisations who attended in Bordeaux

• AEF2008 organisations who attended in Nice

• AEF2007 organisations who attended in Hamburg

• AEF2006 organisations who attended in Lille

• AEF2005 organisations who attended in Barcelona

• AEF2004 organisations who attended in Amsterdam

AEF 2009 analysis

AEF 2009 delegate analysis by activity

Attendance from commercial banks more than halved since last year (15 in 2009 compared to 37 in 2008). Only one South African commercial bank (Absa) continued to sponsor AEF in 2009 compared to 4 (Absa, Investec, Nedbank & Standard Bank) in 2008. The majority of delegates from commercial banks came from South Africa which also explains the drop in the delegates attending from South Africa. The development banks also sent fewer delegates in 2009 compared to 2008. In the main, the same development banks attended but with smaller delegations. The financial services industry seems to have remained more or less the same and made up 7% of the delegates in 2008 and 2009.
Most sectors in the energy industry saw a fall in numbers at AEF 2009 with the exception of equipment suppliers, contractors and engineers which made up 15% of the delegates at AEF 2009. This was the largest sector represented. African government representatives & utilities also saw an increase, making up 11% of the delegates compared to 8% in 2008. This figure shows that although numbers from the South African and Nigerian private sector fell this year, governments, utilities and regulators continue to have a strong presence at AEF. Indeed African regulators increased from 18 to 23 participants. Lawyers also saw an increase at AEF 2009 and made up 11% of the delegates.
There was a fall in the following sectors: power developers, which made up 10% of participants but saw 6 fewer delegates in 2009 compared to 2008; advisors & consultants accounting for 8% of participants but saw 1 less delegate; distributive generation accounting for 7% of participants but representing 8 fewer delegates. The sharpest decline came from oil & gas companies, 28 delegates in 2008 compared to 8 in 2009. There was also a large decline from mining companies. This is probably because of the global recession.
On the other hand the renewable energy sector is buoyant and saw an increase from 4% of delegates in 2008 to 5% in 2009. Representatives from development agencies also increased from 7 in 2008 to 14 in 2009. This could have coincided with the launch of the Africa Renewable Energy Forum.

Click here to view a chart of the AEF09 delegates by activity

AEF 2009 delegate analysis by country

Attendance at AEF 2009 fell by 54, from 460 in 2008 to 406. The most significant decline came from South Africa, United Kingdom and Nigeria.South Africa sent 47 fewer delegates in 2009 than in 2008, the UK 14 fewer delegates and Nigeria 11. In total these three countries sent 72 fewer delegates this year.
Two questions arise from this. Why did South Africa, United Kingdom and Nigeria send fewer delegates? And which countries showed an increase to compensate for the decline?
The first question is answered in part in the AEF 2009 activities analysis. In answer to the second question, is that Denmark, Kenya, France, Mozambique, and the United States of America saw the largest increases in attendance. Indeed these countries sent more delegates than at any previous AEF (6, 25, 58, 13 and 31 delegates respectively). The Netherlands also saw an increase in attendance compared to recent years as did the Cameroon, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Namibia and Zambia.

From Europe Belgium, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain and Switzerland sent fewer delegates than in 2008, and from Africa Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Tanzania and Tunisia sent fewer participants. There was not a significant decline from any of these countries. Madagascar, Morocco and Uganda were not represented this year.
Although attendance from United States of America increased, Canada had fewer representatives in 2009 compared to 2008, as did the United Arab Emirates.
Argentina, Iran, Hong Kong, Israel and Rwanda were represented at AEF for the first time.
139 representatives from 17 African countries travelled to Bordeaux, making AEF a pan-African energy forum. 34% of the delegates at AEF 2009 came from Africa, compared to 52% that came from Europe.

Click here to view a chart of the AEF09 delegates by country & region.