The French government has launched the “Africa France Impact Coalition,” a new forum bringing together French political leaders and prominent African entrepreneurs, as Paris continues to redefine its approach to the African continent.
French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Nigerian billionaire Tony Elumelu (pictured above right with Macron in November 2024) to lead the Coalition, which is designed to be a catalyst for closer private sector collaboration between France and Africa.
Elumelu has suggested that the Coalition – which will be showcased at the upcoming France-Africa summit in Nairobi this May – will be focused on generating mutually beneficial economic growth that can also create opportunities for Africa’s growing young population.
“Africa’s young people are talented, entrepreneurial, and ambitious. What they need is access to opportunity, capital, mentorship, and markets,” he said following the first gathering of the Africa France Impact Coalition last week. “That is why at the meeting I called for deeper collaboration, a partnership between Africa’s private sector and global leaders that meets that scale of the opportunity before us.”
“Strategic partnerships between African institutions and global partners – including France – [are] key in accelerating entrepreneurship, innovation, and job creation across Africa.”
The choice of Nairobi for the France-Africa summit, and Nigeria’s Elumelu as head of the new Coalition, is indicative of the increased emphasis France is putting on relations with anglophone Africa, partly as a reaction to its waning influence in its former African colonies.
Military coups in the Sahel – such as in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger – have often been driven by explicitly anti-French sentiment, with many citizens in Françafrique resenting perceived remnants of French colonial control. This includes the use of the CFA franc currency, which requires France’s former colonies to deposit at least 50% of their foreign reserves with the French Treasury in Paris.
Speaking at the Chatham House thinktank in London last week, Ghana’s foreign minister Samuel Ablakwa said, “there is a genuine concern in Francophone Africa that their relations with France will have to be reset and that there is a need for a new approach.”
France has indeed been working to “reset” these relationships where possible. Last week, French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot visited a former colony, the Central African Republic, in the first visit by a French official to Bangui in eight years. During his visit, Barrot announced the “complete restoration of relations between our two countries after a period of strain and tension”.
However, in light of the diplomatic and commercial difficulties Paris has faced in Françafrique, France has been exploring a new approach to the continent focused on building economic ties in countries where their reputation is unblemished by the colonial era. The fact that France’s two biggest trading partners on the continent come from the anglophone world – Nigeria and South Africa – has given further impetus to this strategy.
France has also been leveraging its closer ties with anglophone Africa for security and military purposes. Paris and Nairobi are due to sign off on a landmark defence pact, with Kenya seeking to diversify from a dependence on its traditional military partners, the United Kingdom and United States, while managing key security threats.
The proximity of Kenya to Western military bases in Djibouti – as well as the ongoing tensions in Somalia and Sudan – similarly make the country an attractive security partner for France.