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France's Investment Focus in Africa
Allocation of the pledged 23 billion euro investment package across key sectors.
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Macron pushes France for new Africa strategy in Kenya | Semafor
I’m in Nairobi for the highly anticipated Africa Forward Summit, cohosted by France and Kenya. I’m already finding the conversation is less about the French reclaiming influence in Africa, like many headlines have insisted, than about African countries widening their options. The summit has brought together some 30 African heads of state and hundreds of business leaders, including Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote and TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné. The talks are focused on AI, renewable energy, infrastructure, and investment rather than the security partnerships and patronage that long defined France’s post-colonial engagement on the continent.For many African governments, France under President Emmanuel Macron has become a more pragmatic partner than it was a decade ago. Since taking office in 2017, Macron has deliberately expanded France’s focus beyond its traditional Francophone sphere toward larger Anglophone economies. Nigeria is a notable example. President Bola Tinubu has built unusually warm ties with Paris, visiting France multiple times in a private and official capacity since taking office in 2023, as both governments deepen cooperation in energy and finance. Kenya’s President William Ruto has also worked more closely with France’s leadership than any of his predecessors. For African heads-of-state, the attraction is not necessarily France itself, but the ability to diversify partnerships at a moment when global powers are competing more aggressively for influence across the continent.Still, Africans know the limits of what France can offer. China remains embedded across the continent through infrastructure projects, mining developments, and state-backed financing. Gulf states can deploy capital quickly and at enormous scale. France’s comparative advantage is narrower: business networks, technical expertise, education, culture, and access to European markets.Part of the backdrop to all this is that France’s influence has sharply declined in West Africa, particularly in the Sahel, where military governments have pushed out French troops and pivoted toward Russia, for better or worse. But from the African perspective, that retrenchment may matter less than whether France can adapt to a continent that increasingly approaches global powers transactionally — weighing partners less by history or ideology than by who can deliver investment, technology, commerce, and developmental partnerships.
In Nairobi, Macron ends a decade of turmoil in France-Africa relations
LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP World World World Africa Africa Africa By Anna Sylvestre-Treiner Published on May 11, 2026, at 12:35 pm (Paris), updated on May 11, 2026, at 4:45 pm Subscribers only FeatureComing to power having promised to rebuild the relationship between France and its former colonies, Emmanuel Macron had to face a series of crises, particularly in the Sahel region. In the English-speaking part of the continent, Paris struggled to find its place. As is often the case during his very frequent trips to Africa, Emmanuel Macron appeared happy on Sunday, May 10, as he landed in Nairobi. Moments later, he was still smiling as he embraced his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto. "I've seen him leave for this battered continent many times and return reinvigorated," recalled Franck Paris, a former classmate of the French president at the National School of Administration. After witnessing Macron's first steps on the continent during an internship at the French embassy in Nigeria in 2002, he went on to serve for six years as the president's influential Africa adviser (2017-2023). On average, Macron takes two trips to Africa each year, and has visited around 20 countries since coming to power – no previous French president ever traveled to the continent so much. "He loves the energy, the creativity, the optimism there. It's a breath of fresh air when, elsewhere, you're caught up in the whirlwind of French politics," continued the former occupant of the spacious ground-floor office at the Elysée. Yet, in Africa as well, this nearly decade-long period has been tumultuous for the French president. Macron came to power promising to overhaul the relationship between France and its former colonies. But he has rarely been able to act as he intended, constantly pulled back by a reality of crises, misunderstandings, frustrations and setbacks. "Despite himself, Emmanuel Macron was plunged into a storm," said Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe, who founded the Foundation for Innovation in Democracy, a Johannesburg-based organization supporting democratic innovation in Africa, together with the French president. 'The Africa that's winning' You have 80.53% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
Macron Opens Summit In Kenya With Fresh Push To Rebuild France-Africa ...
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday began a visit to Kenya ahead of the Africa Forward Summit, where France is seeking to redefine its relationship with the continent through what Paris describes as a partnership of equals. The summit, being held for the first time in an Anglophone African country, comes as France attempts to rebuild influence across Africa following the withdrawal of ...
Macron opens Africa summit in Kenya with push for new France-Africa ...
French President Emmanuel Macron began a visit to Kenya on Sunday ahead of the Africa Forward Summit, where he will promote France's new approach to Africa based on partnership rather than ...
