The Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has officially launched its $1 billion Pan-African Film Fund, appointing publishing veteran Lavaille Lavette as its Chief Executive Officer. Established through the bank's development impact investment arm, the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the fund aims to strengthen Africa's creative industries by mobilising long-term capital for content production, infrastructure and distribution. The initiative is significant as one of the largest financial commitments yet to African filmmaking, seeking to build sustainable global distribution pathways for African storytelling.

The fund will invest across a diversified portfolio using equity, quasi-equity and structured financing, prioritising "commercially viable" and "export-oriented" projects with strong global distribution potential, supported by partnerships with studios and streaming platforms. It will also address "structural constraints" by expanding streaming and exhibition platforms and developing production and post-production infrastructure on the continent. Lavette, Managing Partner at One Street Studios and co-founder of JVL Media alongside Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, will see her firm serve as Co-General Partner with FEDA. Afreximbank, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Cairo, has previously backed films such as the Esiri siblings' Clarissa, which premiered at Cannes and will be distributed by Neon.