African Export-Import Bank said on Wednesday it had appointed One Street Studios as co-general partner of the Pan-African Film Fund, a vehicle targeting up to $1 billion for film, television and immersive media in a high-stakes push to turn Africa’s storytelling power into a bankable export industry and a new frontier for global media capital.
The move, announced through the bank’s development impact investment arm, the Fund for Export Development in Africa, or FEDA, marks one of the biggest dedicated investment plays yet in Africa’s creative economy.
Launched in May 2025 under Afreximbank’s Creative Africa Nexus, or CANEX, programme, the fund is designed to channel long-term capital into an industry that has global cultural reach but has struggled for decades with weak financing, patchy infrastructure and limited international distribution.
Afreximbank said the platform would back a diversified slate across content production, infrastructure and distribution, using equity, quasi-equity and structured financing tailored to the economics of creative projects, a strong signal that the bank wants African film treated less as a cultural side story and more as serious industrial policy.
The fund will prioritise export-oriented projects with clear international distribution potential and will lean on partnerships with studios, streaming platforms and distributors to build what Afreximbank called a pipeline of bankable opportunities.
This initiative aims to address structural obstacles limiting the sector’s growth, including underdeveloped studios, insufficient post-production capacity, fragile exhibition networks and restricted digital distribution channels.
The strategy stretches across the full audiovisual value chain, from development and production to streaming platforms, cinema networks and post-production facilities, in an attempt to build a scalable African screen ecosystem rather than simply bankroll isolated titles.
FEDA and One Street Studios will serve as co-general partners, pairing institutional capital with industry execution.
Afreximbank said One Street Studios brings an integrated model that finances, develops and produces projects from inception to screen while linking the African diaspora with creators on the continent in support of African-owned narratives.
The appointment gives the fund an operating partner steeped in content packaging and production at a moment when investors are increasingly looking for rights-driven media assets with global shelf life.
Dr. George Elombi, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, said:
“The partnership between FEDA and One Street Studios is most timely and strategic as it serves as a crucial bridge uniting the diaspora with geographic Africa but also empowers our creative economy to take full ownership of our narratives, enabling us to produce what we consume and consume what we produce.”
Lavaille Lavette, Chief Executive Officer of the Pan-African Film Fund and Managing Partner at One Street Studios / JVL Media, emphasised:
“Africa’s creative industries are entering a defining moment. Through the Pan-African Film Fund, we will mobilise long-term capital that supports creators, strengthens production capacity, and builds sustainable global distribution pathways for African storytelling.”
Emmanuel Assiak, Chief Executive Officer of FEDA, added:
“African storytelling carries extraordinary cultural depth and universal relevance. Through the Pan-African Film Fund, FEDA is enabling creators to produce world-class content while connecting them with global audiences and long-term investment capital.” Afreximbank
The commercial case is substantial. UNESCO estimates Africa’s film and audiovisual industry already generates about $5 billion a year and supports more than 5 million jobs, yet remains badly underbuilt, with fewer than 2,000 cinema screens across the continent.
UNESCO has said the sector could create more than 20 million jobs and contribute $20 billion to Africa’s combined GDP if long-running barriers are addressed.
Those barriers are severe: informality remains widespread, only 44% of African countries have a film commission, 55% have a film policy and piracy is estimated to wipe out 50% to more than 75% of industry revenue.
In that context, Afreximbank’s fund is not just a financing story, it is a bet that fixing the plumbing of African film can unlock a much bigger creative export machine.
The timing also reflects a sharper global scramble for distinctive local content as streaming economics shift.
Netflix invested $175 million in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya between 2016 and 2022, then poured about $250 million more into South African content between 2021 and 2024, according to CNN, underscoring how African stories are moving from niche cultural products toward mainstream programming assets with international audiences.
Yet the market remains difficult, internet access in sub-Saharan Africa is still around 37%, global streamers have been selective and monetisation remains uneven.
The Pan-African Film Fund aims to bridge the gap between massive audience potential and existing distribution and infrastructure bottlenecks..
For Afreximbank and FEDA, the move is also a balance-sheet-backed statement of intent. FEDA says it has raised $670 million across four fund strategies, while Afreximbank said its total assets and contingencies stood at more than $48.5 billion at the end of 2025, with shareholder funds of $8.4 billion.
That firepower matters in a sector where patient capital is scarce, project risk is high and returns often depend on intellectual property ownership, distribution muscle and the ability to finance a slate rather than a single title.
Africa seeks to be more than just a source of raw stories for foreign platforms. With support from the Pan-African Film Fund, Afreximbank and FEDA, there’s a focus on building an ownership model around African intellectual property, production capacity and distribution ambitions.
This initiative aims to elevate the continent’s creative industries to a more disciplined and globally competitive level.
If the fund reaches scale, it could redraw how African film is financed, who controls the rights and where the economic upside lands.
