French President Emmanuel Macron and his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto announced new partnerships in the arts and sports fields on Monday and stressed the need to leverage Africa's abundant human capital and French technological advances to develop economies.
The two presidents met with young people at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, on the first day of the Africa Forward summit, and exchanged views with leading African artists and athletes.
Mr. Macron stated that the technological solutions used by most countries originated in the United States and China, but that Africa and Europe could collaborate to strengthen innovation.
I think we are fighting a common fight, a common battle in investment, which is to build our strategic autonomy for Europe and Africa, and if we build it together, we will be much stronger," he said.
Mr. Ruto stated that Africa's young and enterprising population was essential to ensuring technological progress and called for the establishment of partnerships.
"We have young people with the necessary skills," he told the audience.
“We have the right infrastructure for internet connectivity and we have a very enterprising population. In my opinion, this is the framework in which we are evolving and I think all other countries should be able to think in this direction, because the future is based on technology,” he added.
