By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
France, in a give and take, has signed contracts in Kenya worth more than 2 billion euros ($2.26 billion), 24 hours after Paris pledged to invest 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) across the African continent.
The infrastructure contracts awarded to French companies include a 1.6 billion euro 30-year concession for a consortium led by Vinci to operate a highway between Nairobi and Mau Summit in western Kenya.
Renewables firm Voltalia sealed a 70 million euro contract for two solar power plants. A consortium led by Airbus won a 200 million euro contract for coastal and maritime surveillance.
Total is finalising terms on a second solar plant, among the deals struck in Nairobi on March 14.
A day earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron had pledged to invest 2.5 billion euros in Africa by financing and supporting startups and small- to medium-sized enterprises by 2022, according to Bloomberg.
Up to 1 billion euros is earmarked for equity investment in startups and SMEs.
In the investment dubbed Choose Africa, Paris will support about 10,000 enterprises across the continent by providing credit, technical support, and equity financing.
The French Development Agency (AFD) said itself and its private-sector financing arm, Proparco, will mobilise the funds
The packages emerged during Macron’s visit to Africa between March 12 and 14 to boost trade with Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya.
France digs in Anglophone Africa
Reuters reports that France – former colonial master of large swathes of Africa – wants to deepen economic ties with Anglophone East Africa.
Macron’s visit to Nairobi is the first by a French president since Kenya won independence from Britain in 1963 and followed stopovers in Ethiopia and Djibouti.
China has moved in aggressively to the three countries and presents stiff competition.
“In Kenya there is an economic opportunity and it’s within the president’s strategy in France to look at not just Francophone Africa, but Anglophone Africa too,” said a French presidential source.
During his visit, Macron vaunted France’s soft power in culture and education and its military expertise to woo deeper partnerships.
Kenya is East Africa’s most advanced economy with a liberal business environment and entrepreneurial culture. French businesses however account for just a 1.4 per cent market share.
French exports to Kenya in 2017 amounted to between $170 million and $225.80 million. China, Kenya’s number one trading partner, exported goods worth $3.8 billion.
“France has supported Kenya for several years in development projects … but we are not sufficiently economically and industrially,” Macron said in a news conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
France also faces competition from other European allies, including Britain which is seeking to revive its trade relationship with its former colony as it prepares to leave the European Union (EU).
Kenyatta, who took Macron for a drive around the grounds of State House in a Peugeot car assembled in Kenya, said he hoped France would become a more important trading partner.
