By Enyichukwu Enemanna
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced deals worth $1 billion during a state visit with his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto, deals which include plans by French shipping group CMA CGM to invest 700 million euros ($823 million) to modernise a terminal at the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
This comes as Paris mulls new deals and partnerships aiming to revive its fading influence in some of its former colonies around the African continent. Investments in clean energy, AI and other areas are also expected to be announced.
On Monday, over 30 African leaders took part in the opening of Africa Forward Summit in Kenya, the first to be organised by France in an English-speaking nation.
It follows series of setbacks in West Africa, where some leaders of French-speaking countries have ditched their erstwhile colonial ruler.
Seated alongside his Kenyan counterpart, Ruto on a panel discussion with young entrepreneurs focusing on technology and artificial intelligence, Macron said Africa and France were equal partners with common objectives.
“A lot of solutions are made in the U.S. 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.”
Africa’s richest man, the Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, is attending alongside more than 30 African Presidents, Deputy Presidents and Prime Ministers, and executives from leading French firms such as TotalEnergies and Orange.
France, which has organised similar events in French-speaking nations since the 1970s – has touted rising trade with African countries, though it has experienced setbacks too.
Last year, Ruto’s government terminated a $1.5 billion highway expansion deal with a consortium led by France’s Vinci SA and handed it to Chinese firms after Kenyan authorities said it saddled them with too much risk.
Kenya hopes to use the summit to attract French investors looking to take advantage of the pan-African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and to advance talks on making the global financial system fairer to heavily indebted African countries.
The Kenyan president will attend the G7 summit next month in Evian-les-Bains at the invitation of France, which holds the group’s rotating presidency.
“We believe it’s a good thing if critical outcomes of this meeting … can also be mainstreamed as critical agenda items by the G7,” Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi told Reuters.
France has traditionally had its closest African ties in its former colonies in the west and centre of the continent but is confronting rising anti-French sentiment.
Coups since 2020 in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger brought to power military officers who expelled French troops and invited in Russian mercenaries.
