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French President Emmanuel Macron has announced 23 billion euros in investment commitments for Africa at the Africa Forward Summit in Kenya on Monday.
The summit, a two-day gathering in Nairobi, brings together Heads of State and business leaders to reset France’s engagement with Africa after years of strained relations with its former colonies.
Macron said the investment package includes 14 billion euros from French public and private entities and nine billion euros from African investors, targeting sectors such as energy transition, digital technology and artificial intelligence, maritime industries and agriculture.
He added that the initiatives are expected to generate about 250,000 direct jobs across both Africa and France.
Macron told participants that the partnership was no longer one-sided, stressing the need for African business leaders to invest in France as well.
He said the relationship between France and Africa had entered what he described as a more balanced phase, with fewer historical tensions shaping cooperation.
“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.
“And that too is what underpins this relationship, now entirely free of hang-ups,” he said.
Ahead of the summit, Macron said in an interview with the Africa Report magazine that Africa’s post-independence challenges could not be attributed solely to colonial history, arguing that African governance also plays a role in current outcomes.
“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.
Speaking during the summit, Macron also said the restitution of African cultural artefacts taken during the colonial era had become ‘unstoppable,’ noting that legal steps had already been taken in France to facilitate their return.
The French parliament last week passed legislation enabling the return of looted African cultural artefacts.
