The Africa Forward Summit, co-hosted by France and Kenya in Nairobi on May 11–12, 2026, produced over $11 billion in renewable energy investment commitments across the continent. French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President William Ruto presided over a CEO forum where executives from TotalEnergies, Électricité de France (EDF), Kenya Airways, Rubis Energy, and others announced large-scale projects in solar, wind, hydropower, sustainable aviation fuel, and clean cooking. The summit, France’s first in an English-speaking African nation, formed part of a broader $27 billion package of investment commitments spanning energy, agriculture, artificial intelligence, logistics, and healthcare. African leaders used the platform to call for reforms to global financial systems, arguing that borrowing costs for renewable energy projects in Africa remain disproportionately high despite the continent’s vast untapped clean energy potential.
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Key Overview
- Total Clean Energy Commitments: Over $11 billion in renewable energy investments
- Broader Investment Package: $27 billion across all sectors (€16 billion from French firms, €9 billion from African investors)
- TotalEnergies: $10 billion in African investment by 2030, including a $2 billion renewable energy project in Rwanda
- EDF: Plans for a 2-gigawatt hydropower project on the continent
- Kenya Airways & Rubis Energy: Memorandum of Understanding for Africa’s first sustainable aviation fuel refinery in Nairobi
- Global Telecom: $350 million for a 250-megawatt solar plant in Zambia
- Meridiam: $200 million to double Kenya’s Kipeto wind farm capacity to 200 megawatts
- CMA CGM: €700 million ($820 million) to modernise Kenya’s Port of Mombasa
- Projected Job Creation: 250,000 jobs across Africa and France
- Summit Attendance: Leaders from over 30 African nations, plus UN Secretary-General António Guterres
The Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi has produced one of the most significant rounds of clean energy investment commitments the continent has seen, with French and African leaders jointly announcing more than $11 billion in renewable energy deals spanning solar, wind, hydropower, and sustainable aviation fuel production. The announcements were made during a closed-door CEO forum on May 13, held alongside the two-day summit co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President William Ruto at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.
The renewable energy commitments formed the centrepiece of a broader $27 billion investment package announced by Macron, comprising approximately €14 billion ($16.4 billion) from French private and public companies and €9 billion ($10.5 billion) from African investors and entrepreneurs. The investments span clean energy, agriculture, artificial intelligence, logistics, telecommunications, maritime infrastructure, and healthcare, and are projected to create 250,000 jobs across Africa and France.
TotalEnergies Pledges $10 Billion by 2030
French energy giant TotalEnergies made the largest single commitment at the summit, announcing plans to spend $10 billion across Africa by 2030. The package includes a $2 billion renewable energy initiative in Rwanda and $400 million for clean cooking initiatives in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
The pledge represents a significant acceleration of TotalEnergies’ Africa strategy. The company already has a substantial footprint across 33 African countries in the downstream sector, operating four LNG filling plants, 23 LPG filling facilities, and 4,000 service stations. In 2025, TotalEnergies closed the acquisition of Norwegian firm SN Power, giving it a 28.3% stake in Uganda’s Bujagali hydroelectric plant and minority stakes in hydropower projects under development in Rwanda (206 MW) and Malawi (360 MW). The company has also been developing solar projects in Uganda and Tanzania, including two 40 MW solar facilities in Tororo and Iganga and a 115 MW solar plant in Tanzania.
TotalEnergies’ broader renewable energy ambitions target over 100 TWh of net electricity production by 2030. As of the end of 2024, the company’s gross renewable electricity generation installed capacity had reached 26 GW. However, critics have noted that the French giant has historically invested less in renewable energy projects in Africa compared to its spending in Europe and North America, making the Nairobi commitments particularly significant.
In the clean cooking space, TotalEnergies had already partnered with carbon project developer DelAgua to fund the distribution of 200,000 improved cookstoves in Rwanda, reaching over 800,000 people in rural communities. This is an area of critical need across the continent, where over 80% of households in countries like Rwanda continue to use solid fuels for cooking, driving both environmental degradation and serious public health impacts.
Africa’s First Sustainable Aviation Fuel Refinery
Among the most notable announcements was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Kenya Airways and Rubis Energy Kenya to develop what they described as Africa’s first dedicated sustainable aviation fuel refinery in Nairobi. The facility is expected to produce 32,000 metric tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel annually, with estimated investment costs ranging between €60 million and €70 million ($70.5 million to $82.2 million).
The refinery will use Dragonfly’s modular technology to process waste feedstocks including used cooking oils, waste animal fats, and other vegetable oils, converting them into low-carbon aviation fuel. Dragonfly intends to bring the facility online within 24 months. George Kamal, acting CEO of Kenya Airways, said the project would allow Kenya to produce fuel locally rather than depending entirely on imports, noting that sustainable biogenic fuel is the optimal route for airlines to meet the International Civil Aviation Organization’s net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050.
Kenya Airways has emerged as one of Africa’s most active carriers in pursuing SAF integration. In 2023, it became the first African carrier to operate a long-haul flight using sustainable aviation fuel on its Nairobi–Amsterdam route. From October 2025, the airline began operating selected international routes using blended SAF derived from non-food crops cultivated in Kenya’s Kwale County.
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Hydropower, Solar, and Wind Commitments
Électricité de France (EDF), the state-controlled French utility, announced plans for a 2-gigawatt hydropower project on the continent. EDF has an established presence in African hydropower, with investments in the 1.5-gigawatt Mphanda Nkuwa project in Mozambique alongside TotalEnergies, as well as projects in Cameroon and Malawi.
In the solar sector, Global Telecom committed $350 million toward a 250-megawatt solar plant in Zambia, adding to the continent’s fast-growing solar generation capacity.
On the wind energy front, Meridiam announced a $200 million investment to double the capacity of Kenya’s Kipeto wind power project to 200 megawatts. The existing Kipeto wind farm, located in Kajiado County southwest of Nairobi, has been operational since July 2021 and currently generates approximately 432 GWh of power annually from its 60 General Electric turbines. The expansion, which would involve 18 additional turbines, aligns with a broader push by French investor Meridiam in Kenya’s renewable energy sector. In May 2026, the firm also launched the €200 million Siruai Wind and Storage project, combining 100 MW of wind power with a 50 MWh battery energy storage system — described as East Africa’s first utility-scale wind-storage hybrid project.
Port Infrastructure and Maritime Investments
Beyond energy, French shipping giant CMA CGM signed the summit’s largest single corporate deal: a €700 million ($820 million) investment to modernise a terminal at Kenya’s Port of Mombasa, the busiest trade gateway in East Africa. CMA CGM said the partnership aims to modernise freight management systems and improve inland logistics networks. The investment positions the French group — the world’s third-largest container shipping company — as a major player in East African port infrastructure.
Proparco, the private-sector arm of France’s development agency AFD, also announced multiple partnerships at the summit, extending its role in financing renewable energy and infrastructure projects across the continent. Proparco had previously completed an equity co-investment in the Kipeto wind farm in late 2025.
Africa’s Financing Challenge
While the scale of announcements was significant, African leaders at the summit used the platform to highlight ongoing structural challenges in energy financing. Several officials called for reforms to global financial systems, arguing that renewable energy projects on the continent face disproportionately high borrowing costs despite strong growth potential.
The International Energy Agency has underscored this point in its own analysis. According to a landmark IEA report published in October 2025, approximately 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to electricity. The agency found that less than $2.5 billion per year is being directed at electricity access across the region, while achieving universal access by 2035 would require $15 billion annually — or $150 billion over the next decade. The IEA noted that the weighted average cost of capital for electricity access projects in Africa can be up to four times higher than equivalent projects in advanced economies, and that bringing those costs to advanced-economy levels could reduce project costs by up to 25%.
Kenyan President William Ruto told delegates that Africa has a historic opportunity to not only participate in the global energy transition but to help lead it, adding that the energy transition must also be an industrial transition.
France’s Strategic Pivot Towards Africa
The summit — officially titled “Africa Forward” — carried broader geopolitical significance. It was France’s first major summit co-hosted with an English-speaking African country, signalling Paris’s effort to expand partnerships beyond its traditional Francophone sphere of influence. The gathering drew leaders from more than 30 nations, including Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, and Senegal’s Bassirou Diomaye Faye, as well as UN Secretary-General António Guterres and African Union Commission chair Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.
The investment-led approach represents a deliberate recalibration of France’s Africa strategy. In recent years, anti-French sentiment and military withdrawals have eroded Paris’s standing in former colonies including Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Rather than relying on historical ties, France is increasingly positioning business and investment relationships as the foundation for its future engagement on the continent.
However, the $27 billion headline figure comes with important context. France’s official development assistance budget has faced five consecutive cuts in less than two years, with total aid projected to fall to 0.38% of gross national income in 2026 — well below the 0.7% target France committed to under a 2021 law. The investment commitments announced in Nairobi are largely private-sector pledges rather than government aid.
Research firm Oxford Economics cautioned that while investment-led engagement is positive, African governments face a development landscape in which growth will increasingly depend on public-private partnerships and technology transfer, and that this approach would not eliminate geopolitical trade-offs. Analysts widely noted that the summit reflects growing competition among global powers — including China, the United States, and European nations — for economic and strategic influence across a continent where vast solar, wind, and hydropower potential remains largely untapped.
At the summit’s close, African leaders pledged to promote green industrialisation through investment in renewable energy, while calling for additional capital to close the enormous gap between current financing levels and what the continent needs to achieve universal electricity access and meet its climate goals.
Sources: Associated Press (via Mongabay) / Al Jazeera / Graphic Online / African Business / Business Day South Africa / Ecofin Agency / Billionaires Africa / The Standard Kenya / Africa Sustainability Matters / Femme Hub / Kenyans.co.ke / NewsTrendsKE / The East African / Energy Capital Power / ESG News / Construction Review Online / The Star Kenya / IEA / EnviroLink Network
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