This article was produced with the support of Africa Forward Summit
As global power dynamics shift and Africa’s strategic importance deepens, France is refocusing its engagement with the continent, moving away from its legacy strongholds in francophone Africa toward a broader, more diversified partnership model.
Africa, a continent rich in resources and burgeoning with potential, has also continued to gain recognition as a vital player in the global economic landscape. It is a land of immense opportunity that is gradually breaking free from the shackles of its historical narrative, ready to embrace a brighter, more prosperous future.
This growing partnership will be the focus at the 2026 Africa Forward Summit, with the theme “Africa-France Partnerships for Innovation and Growth”, which, for the first time since its inception, will be hosted outside a francophone country – in Kenya, an anglophone country which has been widely viewed as the fulcrum for France’s Africa overture.
Kenya as regional hub
Kenya stands at a pivotal moment in Africa’s investment landscape, emerging as the continent’s most reliable hub for international business. The East African country offers a compelling alternative as a regional hub for finance.
It is also positioning itself as a leading investment hub by facilitating high-impact deals and championing reforms that enhance the business climate
According to the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook, released in April 2026, Kenya is projected to post a solid real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 4.9% in 2026, placing it above the Sub-Saharan Africa regional average of around 4.3% to 4.6%, but trailing several faster-expanding economies in East and West Africa.
This forecast positions Kenya as a steady performer in a region facing headwinds from geopolitical tensions, debt burdens and structural challenges. It also highlights room for acceleration amid ongoing reforms in services, information and communications technology (ICT), agriculture and tourism.
Positive investment climate
Indeed, Kenya maintains a positive investment climate that makes it attractive to international firms seeking a location for local, regional, or pan-African operations. This is because the Ruto administration focuses on attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI). President Ruto’s five-year economic development plan, dubbed the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, had identified agriculture; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); affordable housing and settlement, universal healthcare coverage, digital superhighway and the creative economy as core pillars toward achieving transformational inclusive growth.
For financial transactions, Kenya is the regional financial hub for East Africa. Several international banks have been present in Nairobi for decades, and many global financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF, have established their regional headquarters there. Only last month in April, the Africa Finance Corporation announced a Host country agreement to host its regional headquarters in the Kenyan capital.
The region’s leading stock market sits in Nairobi, and the city hosts the necessary legal, accounting and consultancy services to preserve and accelerate this status.
Silicon Savannah
Nairobi also has a vibrant technology community known as the Silicon Savannah, and the Kenyan government has continued to push for Nairobi to be perceived as the premier destination for tech-sector investment and innovation in Africa.
Furthermore, Kenya is a signatory to a large and growing number of tax treaties and investment promotion and protection agreements, such as the Multilateral Trade System (MTS) that allows exports from Kenya to enjoy preferential access to world markets under a number of special access and duty reduction programmes.
Additionally, Kenya’s strategic location and well-developed business infrastructure is also attractions for investors. Specifically, its strategic location grants investors access to the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) regional markets, with access to over 390m consumers. The East African country is signatory to a number of multilateral and bilateral trade agreements as part of its trade policy.
Kenya is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), making its products access more than 90% of world markets.
It is member to several trade arrangements and a beneficiary to trade enhancing schemes that include the recently-extended US Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA); the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); trade agreements between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries; and COMESA.
Transport core
Nairobi is also a major transport hub in East Africa, with connections from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to major destinations around the world; and 80% of East African regional trade passes through Kenya’s Mombasa Port.
The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi is the busiest in East Africa, served by over 40 passenger airlines and 25 cargo carriers, including FedEx and DHL. Kenya also has some excellent infrastructure, such as the standard gauge railway, a series of new roads and modern ports.
Kenya has taken steps to lower its cost of doing business by conducting extensive business regulatory reforms to substantially reduce the number of licensing requirements and make the licensing regimes simpler, more transparent and focused on legitimate regulatory purposes.
It has fully liberalised its economy by abolishing exchange controls, removing price controls and import licensing.
Kenya prides itself in its large pool of highly educated, skilled and sought-after workers in Africa, trained within the country and in institutions around the world.
From the foregoing, Kenya’s emergence as the lynchpin of France’s Africa overture underscores a deeper shift.
It is one where partnerships are no longer defined by history, but by opportunity, mutual respect and shared ambition. If matched with concrete outcomes, this moment could redefine Africa-France relations and position Kenya not just as a host, but as a driver of a new, investment-led era of global engagement.