NAIROBI – French President Emmanuel Macron announced new investments in Africa as a partnership summit closed on Tuesday in Kenya with calls for mutual respect and new, revamped ties that France hopes to build with the continent.
Macron said the Africa Forward Summit marked a financial shift in relations between France and African nations, including those that were once its colonies. Kenya, which was not a French colony, co-hosted the gathering with France.
Investments worth 23 billion euros ($27 billion) will fund various sectors in Africa, including energy, artificial intelligence and agriculture, Macron said, adding that 14 billion euros ($16.4 billion) will come from French companies and 9 billion euros ($10.5 billion) from African entities.
Kenyan President William Ruto, mentioned the word sovereignty eight times in his speech Tuesday.
New partnerships between the African nations and France “must not be built on dependency but on sovereign equality, not on aid or charity but on mutually beneficial investment, and not on extraction or exploitation but on win-win engagements,” Ruto said.
The gathering in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, comes at the height of a fallout between France and its former colonies, mostly in West Africa. France has long maintained a colonial-era policy of economic, political and military sway dubbed Françafrique, which included keeping thousands of troops in African countries it once controlled.
After years of criticism from leaders and opposition parties in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso over what they described as a demeaning and heavy-handed approach, France has withdrawn its troops from those countries and last July, completed its withdrawal from Senegal.
Macron said Paris will respect each African country’s independence, adding that “sovereignty and autonomy are shared, and your success is our success.”
The “days of offering assistance are behind us,” Macron said as he lauded the strong display of unity among African heads of state and government at the summit. “I’d like to focus on co-investment.”
Among those who attended were Senegal, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Rwanda — parts of Francophone Africa — and Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Botswana, all Anglophone countries.
Patricia Rodrigues, Africa director for Control Risks, said France was rebalancing its ties after losing influence to Asian and Middle Eastern countries.
“By organizing an Africa-France summit on the continent, rather than requiring African heads of state to travel to Paris to sign agreements, Macron is seeking to demonstrate that commitment to equality,” said Rodrigues, an expert at the global risk assessment group.
Kenyan economist Wangari Muikia said Africa was diversifying by collaborating with non-European nations, emphasizing growth partnerships rather than historical influence.
“China, the Gulf (Arab) states, and others have expanded aggressively into (African) infrastructure, energy, and manufacturing, offering governments alternative sources of finance and partnership,” she said.
Muikia said the biggest question would be whether these new partnerships with France would move away from exploiting raw materials.
“Without that structural shift, the legacy of Françafrique will continue to shape perceptions of France’s engagement, regardless of how the new model is presented,” she said.
As the summit wrapped up, a joint declaration by all 30 heads of state and government that attended, pledged cooperation in sectors such as energy, technology, agriculture and health.
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