How much money does France make in French-speaking Africa?
France secures access to markets in its 14 former colonies in Africa, to this date, 57 years after independence. Benefits are of commercial interest: access to resources and markets. Mechanisms to support this are a shared currency (the CFA-franc), military presence, secret diplomacy and marketing its language. But … change is on the rise..
While researching about the CFA-franc, I wondered: why does France make all these efforts? And who benefits from it?
Sceptics told me that
1) France hardly benefits from francophone Africa these days; that
2) a stable currency like CFA is a blessing for weak African economies; and
3) Europeans — have nothing to do with it, since African leaders should be able to solve this by themselves.
It took me 4 months of desk research to be able to answer these questions.
And interviews with the people above 👆🏿 who helped me to understand and to analyse the piles of information.
In this second journalistic story on France’s relations with French-speaking Africa, I am questioning: How much money does France make in countries that are amongst the poorest in the world?
And will Macron — the French President claiming to bring innovation — change his African policies in favour of economic and democratic development in francophone Africa?