- The Lagos convening by 7 Generations Institute advanced Africa’s first coordinated effort to mobilize private wealth for development through True Family Offices, emphasizing governance, purpose-driven capital, and long-term impact.
- Discussions highlighted how well-governed families lead to well-governed capital, which drives productive, responsible, and locally focused investments that strengthen entrepreneurship, national systems, and economic resilience.
- The event addressed challenges such as regulatory ambiguity and offshore wealth migration while promoting African-led solutions, upcoming convenings across 15 countries, and the creation of a continental Family Office Learning Network.
The 7 Generations Institute (7GI) continued its Pan-Africa Family Office Awareness and Engagement Tour with a high-level convening in Lagos, marking the next step in Africa’s first coordinated movement to redefine how families and institutions mobilise private wealth for development.
Held at the United Nations Development Programme Innovation Centre in collaboration with the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, Africa Prosperity Summit, African Philanthropy Forum, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Lagos gathering brought together leading families, business executives, investment institutions, philanthropic actors, development partners, and policymakers.
Participants explored how True Family Offices are emerging as holistic governance systems that strengthen families, preserve and grow wealth, steward capital with purpose, and catalyse resilient and inclusive economic development.
“A True Family Office is a governance system that strengthens the family’s relationships, values, decision-making, well-being, next-generation readiness, and the many forms of non-financial capital that ultimately determine how financial capital is created, preserved, and used,” said Barry Johnson, Founder and Executive Chairman of 7 Generations Africa and 7GI. “When families govern these domains well, their money becomes better governed. Well-governed capital then becomes catalytic, supporting entrepreneurs, strengthening national systems, and advancing the continent’s development priorities.”
7GI highlighted a clear theory of change that underscores the relevance of Family Offices beyond wealthy households: when families are well-governed, their capital is well-governed; when capital is well governed, it is deployed more productively, responsibly, and locally; when private African capital is deployed with purpose, entire economies grow and become more resilient.
This model positions African families as essential contributors to national development, entrepreneurship, innovation, and long-term economic stability.
Participants examined the deep link between family governance and sustainable development at local, national, and continental levels. Conversations emphasised the advantages of Family Office capital, including cultural intelligence, care for home community and country, patient capital, blended capital capabilities, early-stage risk appetite, and the ability to move independently of bureaucracy and politics.
Speakers also addressed obstacles to Family Office formation in the region, including a lack of awareness and expert guidance, limited public understanding, regulatory ambiguity, and the historical export of African wealth to offshore financial centres.
The discussion underscored how strengthening family governance can reduce this capital loss and redirect capital to African entrepreneurs, infrastructure, and innovation, while also enabling families to invest abroad in ways that bring economic value back to the continent.
“We create environments that help families learn, connect, and appreciate the catalytic role they are needed to play,” said Sarah Stephen, Executive Director of the 7 Generations Institute. “Most wealthy families worldwide lose their wealth within three generations. When African families build True Family Offices, they preserve their wealth and intentionally reinvest it back into the continent. Lagos showed how ready leaders are to design African solutions for African ambitions.”
The Lagos gathering follows the Nairobi convening held on November 3, 2025, and represents the second stop in a 15-country tour designed to build awareness, capacity, demand, and the policy frameworks needed to support the rise of True Family Offices across Africa.
The tour is part of 7GI’s mission to help Africa retain its private wealth, increase long-term investment in national priorities, support entrepreneurial ecosystems, strengthen regional collaboration, and establish African-led standards and governance practices that welcome aligned global co-investment. Upcoming convenings include Cape Town, Kigali, Rabat, and Abidjan, along with the development of a continental Family Office Learning Network to support ongoing peer exchange and technical development.
