NAIROBI: French President Emmanuel Macron announced 23 billion euros (USD27 billion) of investment for Africa during a major summit on the future of the continent hosted by Kenya on Monday.
France has brought together dozens of heads of state and business leaders for the two-day Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, aimed at renewing France’s engagement with the continent after years of strained ties with its former colonies.
The investments Macron announced include 14 billion euros in private and public funds from French entities, and nine billion euros from African investors, focused on energy transition, digital and AI, the maritime economy and agriculture.
They would create 250,000 direct jobs in France and Africa, Macron said.
“We are not simply here to come and invest on the African continent alongside you — we need the great African business leaders to come and invest in France,” he told the audience at Nairobi’s convention centre.
“And that too is what underpins this relationship, now entirely free of hang-ups,” he added.
Ahead of the summit, Macron told The Africa Report that colonialism could no longer be blamed for all of Africa’s challenges.
“We must not exonerate from all responsibility the seven decades that followed independence,” he told the magazine, calling on African leaders to improve governance.
Europe’s former colonial powers were not “the predators of this century,” he added.
In a speech at the summit, Macron also said that the process of returning African artworks looted during the colonial era had become “unstoppable”.
The French parliament last week passed a law paving the way for Macron to return looted African cultural artefacts.
Macron has sought to position Europe as a more reliable trade partner than China and the United States.
“Europe defends the international order, effective multilateralism, the rule of law, free and open trade,” he told The Africa Report.
On critical minerals and rare earths, China, he said, “operates according to a predatory logic: it does the processing at home” and creates “dependencies with the rest of the world”. He has also emphasised the need for an overhaul of international finance, to set up a system of financial guarantees to bring in private investment, he added.
23 billion euros sounds great, but I hope this isn’t another neocolonial deal where France profits more than Africa. Where’s the transparency on those 250,000 jobs?
Macron saying colonialism can’t be blamed for everything is rich coming from a French president. Maybe he should ask the people of Niger or Mali how they feel about France’s ‘hang-up free’ relationship.
Investing in AI and green energy is smart, but 9 billion from African investors? That’s a lot of money from a continent that’s supposed to be developing. Hope this doesn’t saddle us with more debt.
UN, EU and US and France are central to this development. Their role in this story cannot be understated.
The summit mentioned here involving US and France is significant. The authorities involved have their work cut out for them.