A leading pan-African multilateral financial institution, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), has announced plans to launch a dedicated exploration development investment company within the next one year, with a view to closing the continent’s widening mineral exploration funding gap.
A news report from the African Press Organisation (APO) Group circulated on behalf of Energy Capital and Power on the initiative quoted the Deputy Director and Head of the Metals and Mining Desk at AFC, Franklin Edochie, as making this disclosure in his address delivered on Wednesday at African Mining Week in Cape Town, South Africa.
According to him, the new investment vehicle is designed to expand Africa’s mineral reserves, boost domestic production and secure mineral sovereignty.
The finance expert said: “If we don’t invest in African exploration, we risk losing control over where our resources end up. Investing in exploration is one of our primary targets because local value-addition strategies depend on discovering and defining new reserves.”
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Edochie underscored that continent-led exploration funding is vital to insulating Africa from global geopolitical pressures, which often dictate which projects receive capital rather than prioritizing the minerals most critical to the region’s long-term economic development.
He explained that in tandem with upstream discovery, the AFC was scaling its infrastructure commitments across key trade corridors, adding that “we want to expand our investments in regional ports and power corridors to ensure major industrial areas, such as the Copperbelt, are fully powered.”
While reinforcing the push for upstream discovery, Director-General of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Centre d’Expertise, d’Evaluation et de Certification (CEEC), Freddy Mwamba Kanyinku, highlighted the DRC’s ongoing national geological mapping program as a major entry point for global investors.
Kanyinku noted that while the DRC has completed high-precision geo-mapping for only 19% of its territory so far, modernizing geological evaluation mechanisms has already transformed how foreign investors access the country.
Pointing out that advanced survey equipment being procured by CEEC is giving stakeholders a clearer view of the country’s resource value, the expert clarified: “Previously, to invest in the DRC, you had to go through Belgium first. That is no longer the case – investors can now come directly to us.
“Eighty percent of our land remains unexplored. While we have secured partnerships with countries like the US, there is still immense opportunity for international investors across these uncharted mineral regions”, Kanyinku stressed.
