Fifteen Ghanaian businesses will travel to Nairobi next week for the inaugural Africa Forward Summit, joining an estimated 1,500 business leaders from across Africa and France at an event that marks a deliberate shift in how France is approaching its economic relationships on the continent.
Kenya and France are jointly holding the Africa Forward Summit, formally titled “Africa-France Partnerships for Innovation and Growth,” on May 11 and 12, 2026 in Nairobi. It is the first summit of this kind to be hosted and co-chaired with an English-speaking African country, a fact that carries particular significance for Ghana, which has more than 60 French companies operating within its borders.
The Ghanaian delegation will arrive at a summit designed to be the most expansive gathering of its kind between France and the African continent. Over 30 heads of state and 2,000 business leaders from France and Africa are expected to attend.
At a media briefing in Accra ahead of the summit, French Ambassador to Ghana Diarra Dimé-Labille framed the event as part of a broader recalibration of France’s continental strategy.
“The vision of President Macron is a balanced partnership where we can learn from each other,” Ambassador Dimé-Labille said.
Ghana’s President John Mahama will play an active role on the second day, co-chairing a session on building resilient healthcare systems. The session will focus on strengthening local production of vaccines and medicines, building on his earlier co-chairmanship of the One Health Summit held in Lyon, France, in April 2026.
Kenya’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Ambassador Ishahilidza Shem Amadi, identified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a central framework through which the summit’s outcomes should be measured, saying it presents an opportunity to advance the shared continental trade agenda.
The summit’s second day will take place at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) and will be largely devoted to development financing and global governance challenges, with some conclusions expected to feed into the next Group of Seven (G7) summit that France will host in Evian in June.
Sessions will cover energy transition, green industrialisation, the blue economy, sustainable agriculture, digital competitiveness, and the role of youth and artificial intelligence in shaping Africa’s economic future.
The Africa Forward Summit builds on the Summit on Financing African Economies held in Paris in 2021, the New Global Financing Pact in 2023, the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi in 2023, and the European Union-African Union Summit held in Luanda in November 2025.
