Sawt Falasteen - Macron announces 23 bn euros of investment at Africa summit

France has brought together dozens of heads of state and business leaders for the two-day Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, aimed at renewing France's engagement with the continent after years of strained ties with its former colonies.

The investments Macron announced include 14 billion euros in private and public funds from French entities, and nine billion euros from African investors, focused on energy transition, digital and AI, the maritime economy and agriculture.

They would create 250,000 direct jobs in France and Africa, Macron said.

"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 told the audience at Nairobi's convention centre.

"And that too is what underpins this relationship, now entirely free of hang-ups," he added.

Ahead of the summit, Macron told The Africa Report 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 told the magazine, calling on African leaders to improve governance.

Europe's former colonial powers were not "the predators of this century," he added.

In a speech at the summit, Macron also said that the process of returning African artworks looted during the colonial era had become "unstoppable".

The French parliament last week passed a law paving the way for Macron to return looted African cultural artefacts.

- 'International order' -

Macron has sought to position Europe as a more reliable trade partner than China and the United States.

"Europe defends the international order, effective multilateralism, the rule of law, free and open trade," he told The Africa Report.

On critical minerals and rare earths, China, he said, "operates according to a predatory logic: it does the processing at home" and creates "dependencies with the rest of the world".

He has also emphasised the need for an overhaul of international finance, to set up a system of financial guarantees to bring in private investment, he added.

"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 audience at the close of the summit's first day.

He defended France's military presence in the Sahel region, as it had been requested to fight the jihadist threat.

"When our presence was no longer wanted after the coups, we left," he told The Africa Report. "That wasn't a humiliation but a logical response to a given situation."

"A new era is about to start. The Sahel will one day regain normal governance" with democratically elected leaders who "genuinely care about their people", he added.

D.Khalil--SF-PST