• AFG Bank Mali launches CFA100 billion fund to support local mining firms
• Regional financiers like Dossongui, Nassa, and Tiemtoré now own or fund mines
• Rising gold prices and local content laws drive shift toward African control

AFG Bank Mali launched the Local Content Champion Program (LCCP) on October 27, a CFA100 billion ($177.2 million) financing tool for local mining companies in Mali. The initiative comes weeks after Atlantic Group, AFG Bank’s parent company, acquired Côte d’Ivoire’s Tongon gold mine, marking a broader trend among West African financiers expanding into mining.

From Simon Tiemtoré to Idrissa Nassa and Koné Dossongui, prominent business leaders from the region’s banking sector are increasingly venturing into mine ownership, seeking to translate financial influence into industrial power.

AFG Bank Mali’s new fund offers leasing, equipment loans, invoice advances, letters of credit, and guarantees to mining subcontractors such as drilling, construction, transport, and security firms. The goal is to “strengthen local players, improve competitiveness, and integrate them sustainably into mining value chains,” the bank said.

Other regional lenders are following suit. Burkina Faso’s Coris Bank, led by Idrissa Nassa, launched in 2024 the Renewable Fund to Support the Artisanal Mining Sector (FRASE), a CFA250 million facility created with planetGold to finance miners’ cooperatives and small-scale operators.

Bankers become mine owners

The shift goes beyond financing. In October 2025, Ivorian businessman Koné Dossongui acquired the Tongon gold mine from Canada’s Barrick Gold for $305 million, making it the first large-scale gold mine under Ivorian ownership. “This acquisition marks a historic milestone for our group and for Côte d’Ivoire,” Dossongui said.

In 2024, Idrissa Nassa’s Coris Bank took control of Mali’s Yanfolila and Guinea’s Kouroussa gold mines after acquiring their former owner, Hummingbird Resources. Likewise, in 2023, Burkina Faso’s Simon Tiemtoré bought Boungou and Wahgnion mines from Endeavour Mining through his firm Lilium Mining, before transferring them to the state following a dispute.

While not all ventures have succeeded, these cases highlight a new generation of African financiers aiming to become direct actors in the extractive industry, using banking capital as a bridge to ownership.

Economic opportunity meets rising gold prices

Mining contributes between 5% and 10% of GDP in several West African economies, with gold as the top export for Mali and Burkina Faso and a growing one for Côte d’Ivoire. Soaring gold prices — surpassing $4,000 per ounce in 2025 after doubling since 2020 — have fueled investor interest. West Africa’s share of global gold output rose from 8.7% in 2010 to 14.6% in 2022.

Côte d’Ivoire’s output has multiplied tenfold since the 2010s. In addition to the Tongon acquisition, Australia’s Resolute Mining took control of the Doropo project in 2025, while China’s Zhaojin Mining acquired the Abujar mine in 2024.

Policy alignment needed

The rise of local investors coincides with governments in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso — now part of the Alliance of Sahel States — prioritizing local content in mining. Mali’s law, for instance, allows local investors to acquire 5% stakes in mines.

Yet experts say this shift must be supported by consistent public policy. “The state must ensure a stable legal, fiscal, and regulatory framework, as well as essential infrastructure, energy, and security,” said Mikael Samyr Zouré, commercial director at Coris Holding.

Foreign firms — mostly from Australia, Canada, China, and the UK — still dominate West Africa’s gold sector. But if local ambition aligns with political will, the balance of power in African mining could gradually begin to shift.