African leaders meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Nairobi on Tuesday called for reforms to the global financial system to make it easier and cheaper for African countries to access credit and finance development projects.
The discussions took place during the second day of the Africa Forward Summit, attended by more than 30 African presidents, prime ministers and senior officials, alongside business executives and heads of multilateral financial institutions.
The summit, hosted in Kenya’s capital, marks the first time France has organised the event in an English-speaking African country, reflecting Paris’s efforts to broaden its partnerships across the continent.
African leaders used the forum to argue that international lenders and ratings agencies often overstate the risks associated with African economies, driving up borrowing costs and limiting investment.
“The issue is not liquidity. It is risk architecture,” Kenyan President William Ruto said during the summit.
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Ruto said African nations were seeking fairer financing mechanisms that would unlock investment and accelerate economic growth.
Macron said the summit had already mobilised 23 billion euros (US$25.1 billion) in investments and described the gathering as evidence of France’s commitment to building “a relationship of equals” with African partners.
The French leader also backed proposals aimed at encouraging greater investment flows into Africa, including the creation of a first-loss guarantee mechanism that would reduce investor risk.
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“We are going to go together to Evian in mid-June to convince the G7 to endorse that,” Macron said, referring to next month’s summit of the Group of Seven major economies in France.
At Macron’s invitation, Ruto is expected to attend the G7 summit, where African leaders hope to push for broader reforms to global financial institutions.
Among the proposals under discussion are changes to the methodologies used by major international credit ratings agencies, which African governments say unfairly penalise the continent.
African policymakers have repeatedly argued that high-risk assessments raise the cost of borrowing even for countries implementing economic reforms and maintaining stable debt repayments.
Some leaders at the summit also renewed calls for the creation of an African credit ratings agency that would provide assessments they say better reflect the continent’s economic realities.
Major global ratings agencies, including S&P Global Ratings, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings, have rejected accusations of bias, saying their evaluations are based on transparent and globally applied criteria.
Another proposal discussed was the establishment of debt refinancing mechanisms backed by wealthy nations to help heavily indebted countries manage repayments and reduce financing pressures.
France has been seeking to redefine its relationship with Africa amid declining influence in several former colonies in West Africa, where military-led governments have expelled French troops and scaled back political and economic ties with Paris.
The Nairobi summit is part of Macron’s broader strategy to rebuild partnerships based on investment, trade and economic cooperation rather than traditional political and military influence.
For many African leaders, however, access to affordable financing remains the central issue.
They argue that without reforms to the global financial system, African countries will struggle to fund infrastructure, climate adaptation and industrial development needed to drive long-term growth.
