With more than €250 million invested, an international coalition of public banks and 3,500 organizations mobilized in Africa, the French Development Agency (AFD) has made sport a strategic focus of its work since 2019. AFD’s Chief Executive Officer, Rémy Rioux, was visiting Morocco, where he took part in Game Time Africa, a summit dedicated to the development of the sports industry, held in Rabat on January 15 and 16. He also met with several members of the government, including Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Sport and development, African cooperation, infrastructure projects in the southern provinces, and the future of development aid policies… He answers questions from TelQuel.
TelQuel: Sport is not traditionally a priority area for development banks. Why has AFD been interested in it since 2019 and keen to support the sector in Africa?
Rémy Rioux: Sport accounts for around 2% of GDP in so-called developed economies, such as France and the United States. It is therefore an important economic sector and part of an even larger group known as the cultural and creative industries, which have a significant impact on our economies, sometimes more so than agriculture or the automotive industry.
« Sport is a sector that creates a lot of jobs, generates a lot of consumption and structures cities. »
In Africa, sport accounts for between 0.5% and 2% of GDP. There is potential to be developed that must be sought out. It is a field that creates many jobs, generates a lot of consumption, and structures cities. Sport is a real development issue in Africa.
What is your response to those who say that, as in other sectors, sport is at the heart of a predatory approach by foreign investors, without any local benefits?
« There is a good way to invest in sport, and then there is a way that can be unfavorable, even predatory. »
Sport is an economic sector like any other. We need to move away from the somewhat naive idea that simply playing sport is enough to generate social, environmental, and economic impact. There is a good way to invest in sport, and there is a way that can be detrimental, even predatory.
This is where institutions such as the French Development Agency, the World Bank, and the Caisse des Dépôts et de Gestion here in Morocco bring all the experience, rigor, seriousness, and high standards they have acquired in financing education, water, sanitation, and energy. They apply their methods and perspective to a new sector: sports. But it’s not just about sport or communication, because we are convinced that sport can have an impact on development.
In concrete terms, how are you supporting the sector’s momentum in Morocco?
With our subsidiary Proparco, for example, we have invested in a fund with Elios, a company whose objective is to finance arenas in Africa. Often, big music stars or basketball teams do not perform on the African continent because there are no venues that meet international standards. So there is a business opportunity here that is both profitable and meaningful. That’s on the private side.
Then I met with Minister of National Education Mohamed Saad Berrada, with whom we are financing the pioneering middle school program. Extracurricular activities play a very important role in this new educational methodology. In this regard, sport also plays an important role, and this is something that the Kingdom is developing very strongly. Among other things, this helps to combat school dropout rates.
During your visit to Morocco, you also discussed African cooperation and development in Morocco’s southern provinces, two crucial topics that you addressed with Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita. Last May, AFD announced funding of around €150 million. What projects are your priorities?
I accompanied President Emmanuel Macron on his remarkable visit in October 2024. Since then, we have developed a very detailed roadmap. I discussed these developments with Minister of Economy and Finance Nadia Fettah Alaoui, then with Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita.
“The AFD’s initial interventions in the southern regions of Morocco are a particularly important and symbolic issue. We are the first international donor to invest there. »
We are making real progress in rail infrastructure, water, and education. But the AFD’s first interventions in the southern regions are a particularly important and highly symbolic issue. We are in fact the first international donor to invest there. We will very soon, in April, approve our first financing in this area. This is a loan to the National Ports Agency (ANP). As this region is a major fishing ground, we will contribute to the modernization of southern ports and their upgrading to climate standards.
We will then work with the SRMs, the regional multi-service companies currently deployed to serve local populations. We will also provide direct support to the two regions, as we have already done in the Guelmim region. In Casablanca, too, we are providing direct financing to local authorities for their infrastructure projects.
Official development assistance has been in turmoil in recent years. One thinks, of course, of the drastic budget cuts ordered by Donald Trump, who, among other things, eliminated nearly 80% of USAID programs. In France, the AFD has had nearly half of its budget cut. Are public development policies doomed to disappear?
The symbol of official development assistance was USAID, an organization created by President Kennedy in 1961. More than 60 years later, we are at the end of a cycle and we need to reinvent the forms of international cooperation, while obviously maintaining low-cost resources, or even subsidies when necessary, for certain sectors or certain countries that are much more vulnerable.
You can see how the American system is being reconfigured. In 2018, President Trump created a bank called US DFC. He also made promises to Morocco, but more in terms of solidarity and sustainable investment than in terms of aid. And France, which is chairing the G7 this year, will put the issue of redefining international cooperation and development financing on the agenda, in the context of the current crisis.
In this context, AFD is now reorienting its investments towards more profitable projects (fewer social and cultural projects, more initiatives related to renewable energies). What is the long-term risk of investment logic taking precedence over aid?
We operate according to the logic of solidarity-based and sustainable investment, in other words, quality investment that stops destroying the planet and also seeks social inclusiveness. By maintaining the solidarity dimension, we guarantee that the most vulnerable countries will always be able to count on a minimum level of international cooperation.
« When it comes to international cooperation, we must not have too narrow a definition of what investment is. »
We need to find a way back to solidarity in this moment of redefinition. And that path probably involves a logic of investment and value creation.
I have been CEO of the AFD for 10 years, I travel a lot, and that is what my counterparts in the countries where we work always ask me. No one asks you for aid. It’s a word that is difficult to use. On the other hand, everyone says to you, « If you come to my country, come and invest. » But you can also invest in social sectors. We must not have too narrow a definition of what investment is.
These investments are made in a spirit of solidarity and sustainability, of course, but sometimes they are dictated by a form of pragmatism, such as migration management, for example. To what extent does ideology dictate the strategic priorities of the agency you head?
We are all in our own national contexts and, obviously, there are interests at stake. I can identify three. First, the interests of others. I am here in Casablanca because I am interested in Morocco. In fact, I want to understand Morocco, I want it to do well, and I think that’s important for France.
Then there are French interests. As the French Development Agency, I seek to promote my own country’s interests in this relationship.
And then there are common interests. When we reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it’s good for everyone. When we create growth, when we create professional sectors, and when we work on the issue of migration… all these issues bind us together. So, here again, we must not take a narrow view, but assume that we all have common interests. In the world of development aid, we may have been living in something that was a little disembodied, and people could no longer relate to it.
There has been a paradigm shift in the discourse and expectations of African leaders: we remember the statement made by Rwandan President Paul Kagame in February 2025: « We don’t want aid that perpetuates the need for aid. » How does AFD’s discourse take this new expectation into account?
When the United States cut its aid, the recipient countries reacted logically by asserting their sovereignty. A country like Morocco, which has come a long way in its own development, which fundamentally does not need aid but which, on the other hand, is very open to international cooperation and continues to have certain sectors in which specific and increased investment is needed, illustrates this change in discourse. I think the voices of countries like Morocco need to be heard.
In ten years at the head of AFD, what has been the most difficult challenge you have faced, if you had to choose just one?
I think we contribute to reconciliation between peoples and states, sometimes in very painful situations. I am thinking in particular of what we have done with Rwanda. You mentioned President Kagame, whom I went to see in June 2019. At that time, we did not have an ambassador. Political relations were extremely strained. Then we agreed to relaunch development projects in vocational training and energy, very concrete initiatives that we can be proud of together.
Two years later, President Macron visited Kigali. At the same time, a lot of work had been done on remembrance. And we, for our part, had prepared for the future. The day of that visit was a wonderful moment. The very next day, we were naturally able to strengthen our relationship.
I am not making a comparison, but for this visit to Morocco in October 2024, I had come shortly before to discuss with the Moroccan authorities this idea of investing in the southern provinces. I had carried out my legal analysis and I believe it is sound. I believe that this is one of several factors that has also contributed to renewing, strengthening, and deepening the relationship between our two countries. So we are starting from difficult situations and achieving very positive results.
Written in French by Bouchra El Azhari; edited in English by AngloMedia Group.
