NAIROBI, Kenya — At Tuesday’s Africa Forward Summit, French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled massive new investment commitments while emphasizing that respect for sovereignty would define France’s evolving relationship with African nations.
The French leader detailed investment plans totaling 23 billion euros ($27 billion) targeting multiple African sectors such as energy, artificial intelligence, and agriculture. According to Macron, French businesses will contribute 14 billion euros ($16.4 billion) of this total, while African organizations will provide the remaining 9 billion euros ($10.5 billion).
Macron described the summit as representing a fundamental change in how the European country relates financially to African nations, particularly those with colonial histories tied to France.
Kenyan President William Ruto, whose country jointly hosted the gathering with France, emphasized sovereignty repeatedly throughout his address on the summit’s concluding day. He stressed that Africa had moved beyond European dependence toward relationships built on mutual respect between equal partners.
“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 stated.
The conference, scheduled to conclude Tuesday with a declaration expected to receive signatures from all 30 participating heads of state and government, occurs during heightened tensions between France and several former colonies, particularly in West Africa.
For decades, France maintained what critics called Françafrique—a colonial-era system of economic, political and military influence that included stationing thousands of troops throughout regions under its former control.
Following sustained criticism from leaders and opposition movements in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, who characterized France’s approach as condescending and heavy-handed, the country has pulled back most of its military presence. The troop withdrawal from Senegal concluded in July.
Macron pledged that Paris would honor each African nation’s independence, stating that “sovereignty and autonomy is shared, and your success is our success.”
The French president outlined his country’s revised approach as centered on collaborative goals, noting that “the days of offering assistance are behind us.”
“I’d like to focus on co-investment,” he explained.
Macron praised the strong unity displayed by African leaders as “an image of a united continent with a shared agenda.”
