Aninver tapped by African Development Bank to enhance flagship energy platform

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB), a development finance institution established by the predecessor of the African Union, has chosen Aninver Development Partners to help manage and enhance its flagship digital platform for energy knowledge across the continent.

The selection of Aninver is seen as a recognition of the firm’s established expertise in knowledge management, platform development, and stakeholder engagement for major development initiatives.

The Spain-headquartered consulting firm will leverage its track record of designing and managing digital hubs and content ecosystems to significantly upgrade the Africa Energy Portal (AEP), the AfDB’s digital platform that aims to help verify, consolidate, and disseminate energy data and insights across Africa’s energy value chain.

“We will closely apply the same principles we use in our knowledge-sharing projects – rigorous content planning, user-centric design, and continuous iteration – tailoring them to the specific needs of Africa’s energy sector,” said Alvaro de la Maza, one of the founding partners of Aninver Development Partners.

Elevating the Africa Energy Portal

Over the next year, in partnership with the AfDB, Aninver’s mandate is centered on transforming the Africa Energy Portal into a more comprehensive, interactive, and user-centric platform for policymakers, investors, and sector practitioners.

Key enhancements will include:

• Content curation: Curating and publishing timely, high-quality energy insights, including news updates and deep-dive analyses.
• Data accessibility: Enhancing the visual presentation and interactivity of key data, dashboards, and statistical indexes, such as the Electricity Regulatory Index, to make them more intuitive and usable.
• Knowledge products: Producing rigorous, actionable content such as blogs, white papers, policy briefs, and case studies to support decision-makers.
• Market coverage: Expanding and updating market intelligence and data coverage across all African countries to ensure the portal’s comprehensiveness.
• Stakeholder engagement: Implementing intensive outreach strategies, partnerships, and interactive features to increase the visibility and usage of the portal.

Aninver’s successful bid was underpinned by its extensive experience in developing and managing complex knowledge-sharing platforms. The firm highlighted previous assignments, including building data portals and orchestrating various digital hubs for regional energy knowledge and youth entrepreneurship in Southern Africa.

A track record in Africa

The consultancy also worked in developing disclosure platforms for PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships) in countries like Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Ghana, which aimed to promote transparency in infrastructure projects.

Furthermore, Aninver operates and manages its own global, content-rich knowledge platforms, such as InfraPPP and IPP Journal, demonstrating its capacity to sustain high-traffic knowledge ecosystems.

“We are honored to partner with the AfDB in realizing this vision,” said De la Maza. “This contract is not just a demonstration of Aninver’s technical and editorial strengths, but also of our deep commitment to knowledge as a catalyst for development. We look forward to making the AEP a premier platform – one that empowers stakeholders across Africa’s energy ecosystem.”