Business Leaders Root for Long-term Kenya-France Partnerships to Boost Investments

Business leaders from Kenya, France, and the wider region have called for deeper, long-term partnerships to unlock economic transformation and accelerate trade and investment flows between the two markets.

This emerged during an engagement session in Nairobi that brought together business leaders and institutional partners on the sidelines of the Africa Forward Summit, which was taking place in the city at the same time. The dialogue focused on investment opportunities, risk-sharing mechanisms, and practical frameworks to connect Kenyan and French businesses.

Equity Bank Kenya Managing Director Moses Nyabanda said Africa presents a compelling investment case and urged partners to take advantage of the continent’s growing consumer base and economic integration.

“Africa is now truly bankable, and we’ve played our part; we’ll continue to do that. The market that we offer you is at least 350 million consumers, and if you look at the trend of GDP per capita across the regions that we are looking at, it is the place to be,” he said.

Nyabanda added that Kenya remains a strategic entry point for regional expansion.

“Kenya provides a fantastic gateway to not only the six markets that we have, but the wider East Africa region. And that’s why we are here, for that conversation of how do we bring Kenyan businesses to align with our partners from France, how are we able to catalyse that? As equity, we’ve passionately done that. We are looking at how do we unlock value that sits within Africa, which is immense,” he said.

From the French side, Martin Heslouin, Executive Director of the Council of Bpifrance, highlighted ongoing efforts to strengthen trade and investment linkages between French and African enterprises, noting that tailored financing and advisory support are already in place.

“We have specific programmes for Africa. For a few years, we have been bringing companies to Africa… our core mission now for the team… is to connect Kenyan businesses and African businesses to French suppliers and French solutions, so that here you can grow the business of Kenyan companies. You can get some guarantees or some loans to secure all the transactions,” he said.

He added that the support spans advisory services, loans and guarantees aimed at de-risking cross-border transactions.

Gerard Wolf, Vice President of the Africa Committee of MEDEF International, underscored the need for more practical engagement and stronger project pipelines that can attract long-term private sector capital.

“We have to be more practical and more pushy… all together, we have to push this… we are here for infrastructure, we are here for long-term commitments, for long-term investment,” he said.

He emphasized that future partnerships must focus on ecological transition, skills development and improved livelihoods, noting that structured collaboration between European and African partners would help unlock value along key economic corridors, with Kenya playing a central role.

The engagement led to a shared commitment by investors to move beyond transactional relationships toward sustained partnerships aimed at scaling business, improving financing access, and deepening Kenya-France economic cooperation.