At the 2018 SOAS Arbitration in Africa conference held in Kigali, the young practitioners in attendance identified the unaffordability of arbitration conference attendance for themselves and African students as a hindrance to their career development. This led to a discussion on how best to support young practitioners and students to participate in arbitration-related moots and conferences. After the Kigali conference, Dr Emilia Onyema invited some academics and practitioners to join her in organising a Fund to meet this need. This led to the birth of the “Arbitration Fund for African Students” (AFAS) which was launched on 14 February 2019 at the SOAS Arbitration in Africa conference which held in Arusha.

The Object of AFAS is:

TO ADVANCE EDUCATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, TECHNIQUES, USE AND METHODS OF ARBITRATION BY THE PROVISION OF:

(A) FUNDING FOR STUDENTS IN AFRICA TO ATTEND ARBITRATION RELATED CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS AND MOOTS.

(B) A WEBSITE THAT WILL ENABLE INFORMATION RELATING TO ARBITRATION TO BE MADE AVAILABLE AND ACCESSIBLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

AFAS, registered Charity under the Charities Act 2011 with Charity Number 1185823 – Charity Constitution

The Trustees are: Dr Nneka Emilia Onyema, Dr Chrispas Nyombi, Ms Eunice Shang-Simpson, Ms Yasmin Sebah, and Prof Walid Ben Hamida.