RFI was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France, and replaced the Poste Colonial (created in 1931), Paris-Mondial (1937), Radio Paris (1939), a private station which was commandeered by the Germans during the occupation of France, and the Voice of France which was operated by the Vichy regime from 1941 to 1944, RTF Radio Paris (1945) and ORTF Radio Paris (1965). In 2007, the audience was of 46.1 million listeners, breaking down into 27.5 million in Africa, 10.5 million in the Middle East, 4.2 million in the Americas, 2.2 million in Europe and 1.7 million in Asia-Oceania. In the Paris region, RFI comprises between 150,000 and 200,000 listeners.

Africa is the largest part of radio listeners, representing 60% of the total audience in 2010. RFI broadcasts to over 150 countries on 5 continents.

The majority of shortwave transmissions are in French and Hausa but also includes some hours of Swahili, Portuguese, Mandinka, and Russian. It is a channel of the state company France Médias Monde. RFI broadcasts 24 hours per day around the world in French and in 12 other languages in FM, shortwave, medium wave, satellite and on its website. With 37.2 million listeners in 2014, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with Deutsche Welle, the BBC World Service, the Voice of America, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, and China Radio International. Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the state-owned international radio news network of France.

Radio france international hausa