Decolonising Finance, Africanising Banking

Abstract

Based on Agence Française de Développement (AFD) archives, this chapter analyses, from the perspective of development officials, Africanisation in the banking sector of former French African colonies, from the 1950s to the 1980s. Africanisation (or ‘indigenisation’) refers to the transfer of responsibilities from colonial to local interests or persons. But Africanisation was also associated with the creation of a new activity, since until the 1940s the banking sector within these territories had been largely dedicated to the needs of colonisers. This study shows how in French African colonies the Caisse centrale, the forerunner of the present day AFD., initially contributed, in ways that aimed to serve African interests, to the diversification of a financial sector originally dedicated to colonial activities. Subsequently, after the independence of African colonies, the Caisse centrale as an operator for the new Ministry of Cooperation fostered development through the advancement of the private sector in Africa, and supported the Africanisation of banks as part of its mission of promoting development in African independent countries. In order to help African small businessmen and artisans, the Caisse centrale first created credit institutions which became development banks, then operated a single subsidiary, Proparco. However, as the process of Africanisation, both of personnel and ownership, met considerable obstacles, the idea of development through the private sector came to have a different meaning and reality, with French companies receiving many of the benefits from the Caisse’s credit, as exemplified by the debate about Proparco. To what extent the economy of former French colonies became really ‘decolonised’ remains an open question. This chapter hence shows how difficult economic independence could be in a context where French colonial banking institutions and French business interests still prevailed.