Macron pledges €23 billion in African investment at Nairobi summit, backs French law on artefact restitution
At the Africa Forward summit in Nairobi co-hosted by Kenyan President William Ruto, French President Emmanuel Macron announced €23 billion in investment for Africa — €14 billion from French public and private entities and €9 billion from African investors — targeting energy transition, digital and AI, the maritime economy and agriculture, with a projected 250,000 direct jobs in France and Africa. Macron also backed France's new law easing the return of colonial-era looted artefacts, calling the shift "irreversible and unstoppable." Deals worth more than €850 million were announced over the weekend, including CMA CGM's €700 million plan to modernise a terminal at Kenya's Mombasa port.
Speaking at the convention centre of the University of Nairobi to open the two-day Africa Forward summit, French President Emmanuel Macron announced €23 billion of investment for Africa, split between €14 billion from French public and private entities and €9 billion from African investors. The funds are to be deployed in energy transition, digital and artificial intelligence, the maritime economy and agriculture, and would create 250,000 direct jobs in France and Africa, he said.
"Africa needs investment to become more sovereign," Macron told the audience, framing the package as a replacement of traditional aid with economic opportunity. "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." He added that the relationship was now "entirely free of hang-ups."
In an interview with The Africa Report ahead of the summit, Macron pushed back on attributing Africa's current challenges to colonialism alone. "We must not exonerate from all responsibility the seven decades that followed independence," he said, calling on African leaders to improve governance, and arguing that Europe's former colonial powers were not "the predators of this century." He also acknowledged that European leaders no longer had "the means" to lecture African counterparts on their needs.
On a panel with Kenyan President William Ruto and young entrepreneurs on technology and AI, Macron positioned France and Africa as equal partners with a shared strategic objective. "A lot of solutions are made in the US or made in China," he said. "I think we have a common fight … which is to build our strategic autonomy for Europe and Africa. And if we build it together, we will be much stronger."
Commercial commitments worth more than €850 million were announced during Macron's state visit to Kenya on Sunday, the centrepiece being a €700 million plan by French shipping group CMA CGM to modernise a terminal at the port of Mombasa.
Macron used the summit to defend a French law passed last week that lets the government return colonial-era looted works of art without having to legislate piece by piece. "I believe we have built something irreversible and unstoppable," he said, framing the law as "about repentance" and predicting that even a future French government hostile to restitution "would not succeed" in reversing it. The law follows Macron's 2017 pledge in Ouagadougou to facilitate returns within five years.