The Digital Africa initiative, which was supposed to promote the financing of African startups, will ultimately have been only an illusion. After successive promises of funding in the order of 65 million euros, and more recently 130 million, it is the French Development Agency itself which seeks to dissolve the organization.
In May 2018, visiting the Viva Tech fair, French President Emmanuel Macron promised the Digital Africa initiative an envelope of 65 million euros. France, he said, had to "take its part in financing the development of African ecosystems". Digital Africa was then a simple competition reserved for startups. The French head of state then wanted this project to be completed by a digital platform and a support system for African startups.
Two and a half years later, it's a cold shower! The association started to falter last June, when the Franco-Senegalo-Malian Karim Sy resigned from his post of president after the arrival of Stephan-Eloïse Gras, near the Elysée Palace. It is in reality a whole system of governance which faltered ... African entrepreneurs and consultants who denounced the methods of the association's management. In particular, the management of the French Development Agency (AFD), which holds Digital Africa funds, which notably finances the eponymous association.
While preparing to deliver a report on the dysfunction of the association, the interim president, the South African Kizito Okwechuku feels short-circuited: theAFD is riding the wave of the fed up with African partners to rally less influential players, such as AfriLabs and ABAN Angels, to its cause.
From now on, AFD would seek to dissolve the association without possible discussion. The representative of the French Development Agency, Jean-Pierre Barral, requested the convening of a general assembly on February 18.
When in May 2018 Emmanuel Macron released € 65 million for Digital Africa, many have said here that it is money screwed up ...
Tomorrow, February 18, the Digital Africa association is holding an extraordinary general assembly to dissolve the structure
😡 pic.twitter.com/7L5J2udRx3- Verlaine (@__Verlaine__) February 17, 2021
A digital colonization?
If disappointment is in order, while the association is on the verge of collapse, resentment vis-à-vis France has replaced the penalty. Some people regret that France continues to treat Africa as a colony, instead of imagining a win-win partnership.
The testimony of @africatechie. France will never consider Africans as partners. Never. For them, we are only the inhabitants of its colonies. Once we understand this, we know how to deal with it. ⤵️https://t.co/strPikYMua
- Nathalie Yamb (@Nath_Yamb) February 16, 2021
But whose fault is it? The hopes of the members of the association showered, place to settling of scores. The president of the AfriLabs board of directors, the Cameroonian Rebecca Enonchong, recounts her disappointment. "The very structure of the organization was proof that Emmanuel Macron was determined to build a new, more equal relationship with young Africans on the continent," she recalls, before being surprised that "the voices of the three African members of the Board of Directors who together represent a community of over a million African entrepreneurs ”were“ ignored ”, while AFD's decisions were taken unilaterally.
On February 18, the general assembly was well held. But many members were missing. AFD ensures that it is not a question of dissolution but of a "transformation to change scale" for, she continues, "to increase the ambition of Digital Africa". As for the African members of the board of directors, we know that the association is on the verge of ruin and that AFD could well see itself relaunching a similar initiative, in which it would have full powers.