From solar energy to vaccines: the new path for EU‑Africa cooperation via the EIB

Brussels – Health, energy, infrastructure, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has a busy agenda for Africa, with projects, activities, and resources. It has allocated to Africa over a third of loans and financing disbursed in 2025 (3.1 billion euros out of a total of 9 billion). These are investments that “aim to boost sustainable development, foster stability, and create jobs through win-win partnerships,” the EIB said in a thematic note on its annual activity.

The main beneficiaries of this action were Morocco, Nigeria, Mauritania, Egypt, and Malawi, with significant interventions also in smaller countries such as Gambia, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Sierra Leone. The Green Economy was the common theme for all of them, as the figures show: 46 per cent of activities were focused on climate action and environmental sustainability. 

In the health sector, the EIB’s action focused on strengthening local systems and pandemic preparedness through strategic initiatives such as the production of molecular anti-COVID vaccines in Rwanda, where a financial package consisting of a loan and a grant from the European Commission (60 million euros and 35 million respectively) for the local production of vaccines against diseases critical to the continent, such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, and other viral diseases. In Angola, meanwhile, the first national vaccination campaign against cervical cancer has been launched, with the aim of immunising over 2 million girls aged between 9 and 12.

 Infrastructure investments focus on sustainability and restoring essential services: notable projects include the development of the blue economy in Mauritania and Cape Verde, and the Obelisk solar project in Egypt, which is the continent’s largest photovoltaic power plant with battery storage. Another project has extended access to electricity in rural communities in several regions of Cameroon, directly benefiting more than 1.6 million people. In Morocco, the production of drinking water for smaller towns and rural areas has also been financed, while in Egypt, the EIB supported the Obelisk project, the continent’s largest photovoltaic plant with battery storage.

The EIB report identifies support for private enterprises as fundamental to economic stability. By 2025, the EIB committed 350 million euros of new funds to boost local businesses. In Mauritania, a 20 million euros loan to Banque El Amana, a private Mauritanian financial institution, introduced specific constraints: 30 per cent of the funds are reserved for women and a further 30 per cent for young people. Similar gender equality and youth employment objectives have been applied to support agricultural SMEs in Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

All the measures described are part of the EU Global Gateway strategy that the European Union approved in 2021 in response to Chinese economic penetration at a global stage, and which has the broad objective of strengthening links in the digital, energy, and transport sectors, while enhancing education, research, and health systems globally.