Business

France Mobilises €23bn Private Capital For Investments In Africa

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu participated in the gathering, which observers described as a major diplomatic and economic engagement aimed at deepening Africa-France cooperation.

Published

2 months ago

May 13, 2026

OCHEFA

212 Views

•Photo: French President Emmanuel Macron attends the Africa Forward Summit 2026 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), in Nairobi, Kenya, May 12, 2026. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi.

French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday France had ‌mobilised €23 billion ($27.01 billion) during the African Forward Summit in Nairobi for investments in Africa, to develop new partnerships in Africa after seeing its influence fade in former colonies in West Africa.

More than 30 African leaders, as well as heads of multilateral financial institutions and business executives from across Africa and France, are attending the Nairobi summit, the first France has held in an English-speaking country.

Macron said that rather than African leaders borrowing to fund infrastructure development, he supported creating a first-loss guarantee mechanism to de-risk investments on the continent and would lobby for the idea at the G7 summit next month.

The summit, co-hosted by France and Kenya, has brought together more than 30 African heads of state, global investors, financial institutions and development partners to discuss issues ranging from climate financing and energy transition to digital transformation and industrial growth.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu participated in the gathering, which observers described as a major diplomatic and economic engagement aimed at deepening Africa-France cooperation.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted that African countries face borrowing costs that are twice as high on average as advanced industrialized economies.”That is not a market verdict on Africa. It is a verdict ⁠on the injustices of the system,” he told the summit.

Decrying what they say are biases against them that overstate the continent’s risk, African governments have called for changes to the methodologies used by credit ratings agencies.

Major agencies including S&P Global Ratings, Moody’s and Fitch reject ⁠accusations of regional bias, saying their ratings are based on globally applied, publicly disclosed criteria.

Up Next

What President Tinubu Tells World Leaders At Nairobi’s Summit

Don't Miss

Dangote to flood Nigerian markets with 1 million metric tons of paddy rice

Click to comment

Business

Cardoso Urges Banks To Lend Out Idle Funds With CBN * Retains MPR at 26.5%

Cardoso made the call on Tuesday after the 306th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja from July 20 to July 21.

Published

5 hours ago

July 21, 2026

OCHEFA

17 Views

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Olayemi Cardoso , urged banks from keeping idle funds with the apex bank and encouraging increased lending into the economy.

Cardoso made the call on Tuesday after the 306th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja from July 20 to July 21.

The apex bank retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), also known as benchmark interest rate, at 26. 5 percent.

This decision marks the second consecutive retention of the MPR at 26.5 per cent, following a 50-basis-point reduction in February from 27 per cent.

“The committee’s decision to maintain the current policy stand follows a thorough assessment of the balance of risk,” said Cardoso.

He emphasised that although headline inflation moderated marginally in June 2026, global uncertainties have heightened due mainly to the renewed hostilities in the Middle East.

The MPC also adjusted the asymmetric facilities corridor around the MPR to +50/-450 basis points—a move aimed at discouraging banks from keeping idle fund with CBN.

Furthermore, the committee maintained the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for commercial banks at 45 per cent, retained the rate for merchant banks at 16 per cent, and kept the CRR on non-TSA public-sector deposits at 75 per cent for liquidity management considerations.

Cardoso said despite the global uncertainties, the Nigerian economy has “remained largely resilient to the external shocks”.

Business

CBN admits it opened domiciliary accounts for PFIPC agency

Represented by the Director of its Banking Services Department, Hamisu Ibrahim, the CBN said that the accounts are one in US dollars, the other in British pounds sterling, were opened following a mandate received from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

Published

13 hours ago

July 21, 2026

OCHEFA

20 Views

File photo : PFIPC agency DG, Adeniyi Adeyemi

The Central Bank of Nigeria had admitted that it opened two foreign-currency domiciliary accounts for the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).

The apex bank made the confirmation, yesterday, during the public hearing convened at the National Assembly Complex by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the existence and operations of the PFIPC, chaired by Yusuf Gagdi and inaugurated by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

He explained that on July 30, 2025, CBN received a mandate dated July 29, 2025 from the Office of the Accountant-General.

“We received the mandate to authorise two accounts, one a US dollar domiciliary account, the other a pound domiciliary account, for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council,” Ibrahim told the committee.

He explained the CBN’s verification process, “The process of opening an account requires a mandate from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

“Once we receive that mandate, we perform all the necessary verifications to confirm that this mandate is actually coming from that office.

The department that handles the mandate is different from the department that actually does the account opening,” he said.

Nevertheless, he noted that no one came to activate the accounts after they were opened.“We did not receive any correspondence, mandate, signature or mandate cards. We were not introduced to the authorising or approving officers.“Based on that, those accounts remain inactive, with zero balance. There have been no foreign exchange allocations.