CAC 40 groups are omnipresent in Africa. Several NGOs and specialists deplore a regular plunder of continental resources. State of play.
Total, Orange or L'Oréal ... If these brands are famous in France and companies known to all stock marketers, they are also not foreign to many Africans. Because the continent has become, in recent decades, a real welcoming land for CAC 40 companies.
Total is undoubtedly one of the most powerful French groups on African soil. The multinational benefits from a historic presence in the countries of "Françafrique", from Gabon to the Congo, but also in Algeria, Nigeria and Angola. Official sponsor of African football competitions, Total seems to be well established in Africa despite recurring accusations of plundering local resources.
"We must give back to Africans what we took from them" (Jacques Chirac)
In 2000, Total absorbed Elf-Aquitaine, a company entangled in a politico-financial scandal with “Françafrique” accents. The continent's share in the profits of the French group is also impressive: in 2018, the continent represented ... 28% of Total's oil and gas production. After his departure from the Elysee Palace, Jacques Chirac confessed: "It is that a large part of the money which is in our wallet comes precisely from the exploitation, for centuries, of Africa". He then proposed to "give back to Africans what was taken from them".
In his book "The Looting Machine", the journalist Tom Burgis returns to the plundering of natural resources in Africa, in particular by the multinationals of the CAC 40. The author notably denounces a "paradox by which the nations richest in natural resources suffer often of great poverty, bad governance and conflicts ”. In other words, the exploitation of raw materials by CAC 40 companies is not beneficial to local populations.
Poor working conditions, development of the informal sector, ecological and health disasters… Multinationals seem to be causing a lot of damage in Africa. With the help of African leaders, but also thanks to the silence of international institutions like the World Bank, a study of which "suggested a decade ago that the oil and mining industries could increase poverty," recalls Tom. Burgis who recalls that “the bank officials largely ignored it”.
The woes of the CAC 40 groups in Africa
The Multinationals Observatory is also working on this subject. Each year for the past three years, it has offered its “true assessment” of the CAC 40, a far cry from the flattering annual reviews published by the major groups. "The 'Françafrique' continues to weigh heavily on the continent", summarized the observatory in its 2019 edition, deploring the attitudes of Veolia, Castel, Areva, Auchan or even Orange which, according to him, exploits resources in Africa without contributing sufficiently fiscally to the finances of the host countries.
In its latest report, the Multinationals Observatory sums up the strength of the CAC 40 companies as follows: “Encouraged by French economic diplomacy and the corruption of their elites, many French-speaking African countries have privatized their public services to entrust them to French companies ”. Indeed, thanks to these sleight-of-hand tricks, the large French groups succeed in grabbing pretty markets on the continent. This is the case of Bolloré which, describes the observatory, "is suspected of having monetized the political communication services of its subsidiary Havas in exchange for the concessions of the ports of Lomé (Togo) and Conakry (Guinea)".
With the complicity of political leaders
Socfin, a subsidiary of the group, is also accused of participating in the land grabbing of peasants all over the world to profit from the extraction of palm oil. In Sierra Leone, Cameroon or Liberia, Bolloré is controversial. The French giant has made sure that it will put an action plan for the benefit of the communities affected by its Cameroonian subsidiary of Socfin ... The latter has never been put in place.
"When we speak of the looting of Africa, we immediately think of Western multinationals, but we must not forget that it is practiced with the blessing and the complicity of African leaders", summarizes Gloria Djigui, in a column published by the Libre Afrique newspaper. These examples indeed show that the way in which CAC 40 companies take advantage of African resources is in part due to failing governance systems. As long as it is possible, the multinationals will continue to plunder African resources, in spite of the harmful consequences for the populations of the various States.