In a joint venture with CFAO Carrefour plans to launch stores in eight countries, including Cameroon, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.
Joseph Robinson, a lead consultant at the Conlumino research agency, said: "Retailers are slowly coming to acknowledge that factors such as growing middle classes, mobile technology and improving infrastructure are slowly driving the continent to prominence."
Emerging market consultancy Novirost described Nigeria as "the big prize". But Cameroon is also promising, with Euromonitor, the insights provider, forecasting that retail sales will rise from $221.1m last year to $561.1m by 2017.
Nevertheless, there are problems for FMCG companies seeking to break into the African market.
Izaskun Bengoechea, research manager for Euromonitor in Cape Town, noted that the region lacked "strong formal retail organisation", and that while the growing middle class does hold promise, spending remains low by European standards.
