AFRICA RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FUND

Registered charity 1193865 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as AREF

The Africa Research Excellence Fund promotes medical research in Africa for the public benefit by providing education and training opportunities for individuals who are citizens of a country in Africa and are aspiring to, or have already embarked on, a career in medical research in Africa. The charity hosts training programmes and provides grants to support the development of research skills.

Causes: Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total reserves amounted to £5.0m, with £1.7m in unrestricted funds and £3.4m restricted. The charity reports a net expenditure of £1.3m for the year, resulting in a decrease in total funds from £6.3m to £5.0m. The trustees consider the going concern basis appropriate, citing healthy cash balances and sufficient assets to meet liabilities.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Crowe U.K. LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Professor Akhere Omonkhua — Chief Executive Officer (source)
• Professor Sir Tumani Corrah — Co-President (source)
• Professor Baron Peter Piot — Co-President (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• GSK — “At GSK, we’re very proud to support their work.” (source page)
• Robert Bosch Stiftung — “Dr Katrin Rehak-Nitsche Robert Bosch Stiftung” (source page)
• Vitol Foundation — “Ian Taylor Vitol Foundation Chairman, 1995 – 2018” (source page)
• Bristol Myers Squibb — “Dr. Natanya M. Jennings Global Health Equity Platform, Bristol Myers Squibb” (source page)
• European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership — “Dr Michael Makanga European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP)” (source page)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~4.8 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (89% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 9.3% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (19/01/2022) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Solomon Woldenhaimanot Soquarchair
• Charles Richardson Ladipo Clarke
• Dr Majdi Osman · trustee of 1 other charity
• Pauline Anne Mullin
• Professor Gibril Faal
• Professor Tumani Prince Corrah
• Russell Delew

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Angola · Benin · Botswana · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Cape Verde · Central African Republic · Chad · Comoros · Congo (Democratic Republic) · Djibouti

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with AFRICA RESEARCH INSTITUTE.

• AFRICA RESEARCH INSTITUTE income £100k
• AFRICA ADVOCACY FOUNDATION income £1.4m
• AFRICAN LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE income £218k
• MEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION income £3.7m
• THE AMECA TRUST income £105k
• THE AFRICAN NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH TRUST income £744k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.