On the occasion of the first day of the Africa Forward Summit, jointly organized by France and Kenya under the high patronage of the President of the French Republic and the President of the Republic of Kenya, the AFD Group and its partners announced several major initiatives in favor of innovation, sustainable growth, and infrastructure in Africa.
This first day of the summit, dedicated to the business forum “Africa Forward: Inspire and Connect,” highlighted the wealth of economic, entrepreneurial, cultural, and sports cooperation between Africa and France, as well as the opportunities in strategic sectors such as energy, digital technology, sustainable infrastructure, and agriculture.
On this occasion, several significant commitments were announced by the AFD Group, notably through its dedicated private sector subsidiary Proparco, and their public and private partners, to accelerate investments and support high-impact projects on the African continent.
BLUE ECONOMY
AFD, Proparco, and BOAD strengthen their partnership for sustainable development in West Africa
The West African Development Bank (BOAD), the French Development Agency (AFD), and Proparco signed new agreements to enhance financing for sustainable development projects in the UEMOA countries.
This cooperation aims to support investments in climate action, sustainable blue economy, energy efficiency, and resilience to climate and environmental risks.
The signed agreements will allow BOAD to mobilize more financing to support projects led by the States and economic actors in the region, through new financing mechanisms established with AFD and Proparco.
They also reflect the common commitment of BOAD, AFD, and Proparco to strengthen their strategic partnership in support of the development priorities of West African countries.
ENERGY:
AFD, EIB World, and EBRD mobilize 173 million euros to improve access to electricity in Benin
During the Africa Forward Summit, the French Development Agency (AFD), the European Investment Bank (EIB World), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), alongside the European Union, signed a joint declaration around the PEDER+ project. Coordinated by AFD, this funding aims to improve electricity access for 600,000 people, representing 4% of the Beninese population.
Supported by the European Union under the Global Gateway initiative, this project is also part of the Mission 300 dynamic, led by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, to accelerate access to electricity for 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.
With a total amount of 173 million euros, PEDER+ is expected to enable 120,000 new connections and improve electricity access in 750 locations, through the construction or rehabilitation of approximately 4,500 kilometers of lines.
The project will strengthen and expand medium and low-voltage networks in the Mono, Couffo, and Borgou departments, where electricity access rates are still limited. It directly contributes to Benin’s National Electrification Strategy, which aims for universal electricity access by 2030.
SPORT
The AFD Group achieves its goal of investing 500 million euros in sport and development by 2026
In line with commitments made by France since 2017 and collectively reinforced at the Sport for Sustainable Development Summit in Paris in 2024, the AFD Group has invested 500 million euros between 2018 and 2026 in projects combining sport and development in Africa. This goal, initially set for 2030, was achieved four years ahead of schedule. Thus, more than 10 million young people have directly benefited from these initiatives in education, inclusion, health, and integration.
Furthermore, as part of the sports segment of the Africa Forward Summit, the AFD Group also contributed, alongside NBA Africa, to the renovation of basketball courts at the University of Nairobi through the Basketball Experience project.
DIGITAL
COPAR: A partnership between AFD and IRD to develop a Franco-African high-performance computing network (HPC) for sustainable development research and innovation.
The AFD Group and IRD have also signed a new partnership to support the emergence of a pan-African and European high-performance computing (HPC) network for sustainable development. This initiative will help structure a Euro-African scientific and digital ecosystem by strengthening research, training, and innovation capacities around strategic issues such as climate modeling, health, agriculture, and sustainable natural resource management. The partnership will fund an initial phase of the network, involving several African universities and research centers, with the ambition to promote infrastructure sharing, skills development, and the emergence of high-level scientific collaborations between Africa and Europe.
Digital Africa: Nairobi hosts an Africa-Europe dialogue on sovereign artificial intelligence
On the sidelines of the Africa Forward Summit, the Government of Kenya, the Africa-Europe Foundation, Digital Africa, and the French Development Agency (AFD) organize a high-level dialogue focused on the future of sovereign and inclusive artificial intelligence in Africa.
Bringing together public decision-makers, international institutions, researchers, and private actors, this meeting aims to strengthen Africa-Europe cooperation around three priorities: talent and training, infrastructure and data, and AI governance.
On this occasion, the AFD Group will present several key initiatives, including the AI Investment Potential Index (AIIPI) and the launch of an initial phase of a pan-African high-performance computing network to support research and innovation in artificial intelligence on the continent.
“Africa must co-author the rules and uses of global artificial intelligence,” reminds the AFD Group.
AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Choose Africa: a French initiative to accelerate the growth and promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa
Choose Africa, led by Proparco from 2018 to 2022, has granted nearly 3.5 billion euros in financing to over 40,000 companies, creating and maintaining over 2 million direct and indirect jobs on the continent. A second phase, Choose Africa 2, with three components, was launched in 2023. This phase includes, in addition to the activities of phase 1, two new components aimed at: better targeting very small and medium-sized enterprises by facilitating their access to credit and strengthening public support mechanisms (by AFD, Expertise France, and Bpifrance) and supporting French companies wishing to expand their activities in Africa (by Bpifrance).
The Africa Forward Summit will also be an opportunity to present the first beneficiaries of Choose Africa 2, especially in Benin.
Among them, the Beninese materials promotion company, a company engaged in the production and marketing of materials for construction and road infrastructure, such as cement and ceramic tiles, paving stones, and plaster. As well as Origine Terre, a natural cosmetics company specializing in products tailored to the skin and hair of black individuals.
