The development of a French-speaking market in Africa is encouraged by a language, a currency and contract law, as well as a few French multinationals. But the future is not written.

René Saal, former leader of the Canal+ group and president of the consulting firm Adweknow, dedicated to the continent, has his eyes on the 94% winner of the Ivorian presidential election. “Alassane Ouattara has the historic opportunity to reach out as soon as he is elected,” he said. But if he has an aggressive policy towards the opposition, it will be a mess. “It must be said that Côte d'Ivoire, which has doubled its GDP since 2011, has a particularity: it is a driving force in French-speaking Africa, with 8% annual growth in eight years, and probably the most francophone and francophile of the sub-Saharan states. It has nothing to do with Senegal, the other dynamic country in the zone, whose Wolof is so widespread that its TV series are sometimes shot in this language and then translated into French for other African countries. With a relatively prosperous Côte d'Ivoire, it is guaranteed to have a creative audiovisual scene (Babiwood) and multi-local advertisers, in addition to local and international advertisers (MTN, Orange, Unilever, etc.). In other words, businesses that, after expanding in Abidjan, are trying their luck in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin or other French-speaking countries

A cooperative advantage

Francophonie. The word is out. Sixty years after independence and fifty years after its creation, this movement sees its future in Africa, where 55% of its daily speakers are. But it is only since the 2012 Dakar summit that the 54 member states of the OIF (International Organization of la Francophonie) have begun to have an economic strategy. “It is not an economic space as such,” says Henri Monceau, head of the OIF's Directorate of Economic and Digital Francophonie. Commercial exchanges do not take place primarily in relation to the linguistic dimension. But there is a cooperative advantage in building relationships or cultivating innovations with actors who speak the same language. ” Isn't it because Rwanda initially turned away from French in favor of English that it opened up to the English-speaking economies of East Africa rather than West Africa

10% of French-speaking African content

Fortunately, business circles in the former French colonial empire still very often speak French, the language of instruction. But the future is not easy. TV5, which launched an app “Learn French with TV5Monde” in March, is well aware of this. In partnership with the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, its deputy director Evelyne Pâquier then planned — before lockdown — to create a specific apprenticeship on business French from the Journal of the Chain's Economy. This dimension has extended to cultural influence since the creation of the TV5MondePlus video streaming platform in October, which provides for 10% French-speaking African content. “There is a discoverability issue, recalls Henri Monceau, it is essential that this content be accessible and

Other assets, the French-speaking African space has a common currency and a common legal history. The CFA franc, which can be converted into the euro, is still the currency of 14 African states, although it must be replaced by the eco in West Africa. As for business contracts, they still remain drawn up according to legal rules inherited from our French law, including electronic signatures. We must add a political interest in developing exchanges in French, which can be a difficulty for Anglo-Saxon companies to enter. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec, who funded TV5Monde Plus and the second economic Francophonie Observatory in March, in Rabat, understood this well. “We are convinced that when you work in a common language market, you can have up to 30% added value compared to linguistically heterogeneous areas,”

One of the major successes of this development is the credit of the Canal+ group and its 5 million subscribers in Africa. Operated in French-speaking countries, this establishment, which now ensures the profitability of the group, serves as a support point for an expansion into English-speaking Africa, as shown by the acquisition of 12% of the South African pay TV leader Multichoice. Orange, for its part, will launch Djoliba on November 6, the first pan-African fiber optic network that will cover all of French-speaking West Africa

Digital education for young people

Faced with connections that are often imperfect, unequal and sometimes not favored by the powers in place, due to lack of resources or political will, access to the Internet is key. This is how a young continent will be able to learn digitally. After having supported 60,000 start-ups through accelerators and incubators between 2014 and 2018 (also financed by Canada), the OIF is now interested in young companies that are between five and ten years old, have reached maturity and have growth potential, particularly in French-speaking Africa. Its secretary general Louise Mushikiwabo wants a major digital training plan for young people to “enable them to propose their own solutions”, in particular using artificial intelligence. Because as a 2019 report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development points out, Africa is as badly off as Europe in the data economy: less than 3% of resources compared to 3.4% for Europeans, 27% for China and 63% for the United States

So the difference may lie in the ability to rapidly train minds that can rely on AI. In Cameroon, the Caysti incubator trains young Africans on the code using English and French. The arrival of French-speaking Africa on the digital scene represents both the greatest growth dynamic for Internet giants and an avenue for large-scale predation. “Telecoms operators do not want to lower their prices and invest in bandwidth, René Saal points out, the investments are too important. As a result, the digital dream does not exist: we were talking about it three or four years ago but it is blocked by infrastructure.

A few years ago, we also talked about Eldorado for the French-speaking media. Apart from Canal+, there are not many people left outside of public media and Trace music channels. Lagardère has sold or is in the process of selling its Vibe radios, in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal. Gulli Africa is funded by Canal. And M6 has moved away from the Ivorian TNT channel, Life TV. What about the projections of financial analysts who expect 750 million Francophones in 2060? “We are still very positive, the African market remains a real growth driver,” assures Jérôme Bodin, from Natixis. In the end, it may rather be Amazon, Facebook or Netflix, who will end up investing in infrastructure — cable or satellite — to exploit data