Macron Pitches France as Africa’s ‘Partnership of Equals’ with €23 Billion Investment Announcement

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced €23 billion in investment commitments for Africa during the Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, positioning France as a willing partner for the continent’s energy transition, digital development, and agricultural modernisation — and directly challenging China’s model of engagement.

The two-day summit, co-hosted by Kenya and France, brought together dozens of African heads of state and hundreds of business leaders at Nairobi’s convention centre. It marked the most significant French diplomatic and economic engagement with Africa in years, following a period of strained relations with former French colonies in West Africa where anti-French sentiment had been rising.

Macron’s announcement included €14 billion in private and public funds from French entities, plus €9 billion from African investors, spread across four priority sectors: energy transition, digital and artificial intelligence, the maritime economy, and agriculture. The French President said the package would create 250,000 direct jobs in both France and Africa.

The investment pitch came with a clear political message. “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,” Macron told the summit. “And that too is what underpins this relationship, now entirely free of hang-ups,” he added, explicitly acknowledging and seeking to move beyond the troubled colonial legacy that has long complicated France-Africa relations.

The comments marked a significant rhetorical shift. In an interview with The Africa Report published ahead of the summit, Macron went further, arguing 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 said, calling on African leaders to improve governance. Europe’s former colonial powers, he added, were not “the predators of this century.”

France has also been seeking to overhaul international finance structures to make Africa a more attractive destination for private investment. Macron has championed reforms to the global financial guarantee system that would reduce risk for private investors looking at African markets. “There is no reason today for there to be so little private investment coming into a continent as full of energy and youth as yours,” he told the summit audience.

The timing of the Africa Forward summit, coming after France’s loss of influence in West Africa following military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad, makes the Nairobi gathering especially significant for Paris. Macron defended France’s military presence in the Sahel, saying it had been requested to fight the jihadist threat and that French forces had left when their presence was no longer wanted. “A new era is about to start,” he predicted. “The Sahel will one day regain normal governance” with democratically elected leaders.

Kenya’s President William Ruto welcomed the commitments, saying the summit outcomes should be discussed at the G7, signalling Nairobi’s ambition to position itself as a gateway for international investment into Africa.

Also notable was Macron’s comment on the restitution of African artworks looted during the colonial era. “The process has become unstoppable,” he said, in reference to legislation France’s parliament passed last week paving the way for the return of cultural artefacts to the continent.

The Africa Forward summit represents a significant recalibration of France’s Africa strategy under Macron, moving away from the Françafrique model of close ties with incumbent leaders toward a more commercially driven engagement based on mutual investment and shared interests in technology, climate, and development. Whether the €23 billion in pledges converts into actual projects will be the true test.