Africa sits at the centre of the global race for minerals that will power the world’s future yet historically, Africans have captured only a fraction of the value created from their own natural resources. As demand for critical minerals accelerates, a new institution is stepping forward with a bold, African vision for ownership, capital mobilisation, and value retention.

The Africans for Africa Initiative (AFA) has appointed Launch Africa Capital Manager (LAC) as Fund Manager for the AFA Fund, a Pan-African investment platform targeting an initial $100 million first close to reshape how mining projects are financed, governed, and developed across the continent.

The AFA Fund is a specialist, mineral-agnostic investment vehicle, designed to channel African, diaspora, and international capital into high-quality resource projects in a way that places African interests at the centre of value creation. With this decision, AFA is positioning itself as one of the first continent-wide resource funds grounded in a non-negotiable principle: a minimum of 51% of project benefits must demonstrably accrue to Africans and their communities.