It depends on whether there is any sort of functional government for them to do business with, which Africa hasn't been especially great for since de-colonization after WW2.
The French are very much going to be trying to do an empire-on-the-cheap approach to things in the beginning of the 21st century, with just too many problems and too much to do just to keep France afloat at something approximating a 1990s level of prosperity. If an oil producing country has a functional government who wants to do business, doing business with them is logical.
21st century colonies, on the other hand, would tend to develop in areas where things have collapsed so far and so hard that there's no one left to do business with beyond very petty warlords. In some cases, it might be preferable to pick a warlord and help him attain power. Probably in the sole case of oil producing areas would it possibly be better to park a couple brigades of troops and a French civil administration.
In Africa this might be preferable in a case like Nigeria, depending on how hard the collapse in that country is. It might make a lot more sense to expropriate the Niger Delta oil producing region. Maybe the French pretty it up by creating a government of locals who'll play ball, or maybe they just theirs and get on with it. (This situation could also play out elsewhere -- Mexico, Venezuela, etc, beyond the obvious one of Middle East nations, depending on how well France can satisfy their energy needs and how destabilized energy producing regions are.)
One possible reason to re-engage with Francophone Africa would be manpower to help accomplish their assorted geopolitical goals. However, in the first decade or two of the 21st century, I think they could do a very brisk business in raiding Europe for whatever manpower they need. Besides being able to grow the French Foreign Legion as large as they want, I'd think they could also headhunt most any surviving skilled labor they wanted. Conditions are bad enough in most European nations that there wouldn't be any shortage of engineers, doctors, trained machinists, whatever who'd defect to France in exchange stability, freedom from famine, and reasonable medical care. (France might be able to do the same in North America via engagement with Quebec -- doesn't the Challenge write up on Canada show them as the guarantor of Quebec's independence?)
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