Warm words, thin relief: Macron’s Africa financial push under scrutiny

By Duncan Miriri

NAIROBI, May 13 (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron jogged with Kenyan marathon star Eliud Kipchoge, spoke with local university students and announced $27 billion in new investments at a Franco‑African summit in Nairobi this week. 

But his pledges to support Africa’s debt‑strapped economies and push to reform the international financial system by offering a first loss guarantee mechanism fell short of what is needed, such as debt relief and payment pauses, analysts said. 

“There are a vast range of new commitments France could have made that would have helped to shift the international financial architecture,” said Hannah Ryder ⁠of Africa-focused consultancy, Development Reimagined. “Those France picked, even if they were credible… will simply preserve the architecture as it stands.”

A first‑loss guarantee is a mechanism in which one party absorbs initial losses on an investment, aimed at making projects more attractive to private investors.

The risk-guarantee mechanism is part of a broader push to mobilise private capital as rich governments shift spending from development financing to defence and other domestic priorities.

“We need to make the international development finance system work better, ensure it is better coordinated, less complex for recipient countries,” a French finance ministry official said in Paris on Wednesday.

“States and international financial institutions can guarantee loans taken out by poorer or developing countries to finance projects.” 

CALLS FOR DEBT RELIEF

African leaders like Kenya’s William Ruto, who co-chaired the summit with Macron, have pushed for a review of credit rating approaches to lower borrowing costs, arguing Africa’s risk is overstated. Major credit ratings agencies have rejected the criticism. 

Other African proposals include debt relief for poorer nations, while a panel of African experts convened by South Africa last year urged rich nations and international financial institutions to create a debt refinancing mechanism. 

Macron, who holds the G7 presidency, has invited Ruto to its summit next month where the risk-guarantee mechanisms will be discussed. 

Campaigners say that will not be enough.

“France must use its significant political influence on international sovereign debt issues to call for debt cancellations for Global South countries that request it,” six civil society groups, including African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (Afrodad) and Oxfam France, said in a joint statement.

Paris pitched the summit – the first held in a non-Francophone country –  as a sign of renewed engagement with Africa after tension with some former colonies in West Africa.

More than 30 African leaders attended, alongside African and French business executives.

“While France is attempting to market itself as a more equal and respectful partner, the summit also reflected a broader effort by a former colonial power to remain economically and politically relevant on the continent,” said Jervin Naidoo, political analyst at Oxford Economics.

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas in Paris; Editing by Karin Strohecker and Keith Weir)