Our values

• In 1940, the Army’s Geographical Unit, created in 1887, became the Institute of National Geography (IGN), a department of the Ministry for Public Works.
• In 1967, IGN became a public administrative body of the State. Its main mission was to create and maintain the geographic reference databases required by the State.
• IGN’s overseas work, as it was set out in decree 1402 dating from June 7th 1944 and confirmed in an order issued on February 19th 1947, was to perform “geodesic, topographic and mapping projects of general interest in the overseas territories governed by the Naval Secretary of State and French colonies and to manage all of its branches and local departments (named ‘Colonial Geographic Departments’) as well as temporary assignments sent from the metropolis.
• Before the era of independence, IGN managed the local ‘branches’ and logistical bases in Hanoi (as well as Saigon and Dalat), Tananarive, Yaoundé, Brazzaville, Bamako, Niamey, Dakar, Abidjan, Bangui, Rabat and Alger.
• Changes in the political context meant that a mapping project covering the entire Far East could not be finished, unlike the project for Africa, where IGN’s cartographic coverage constitutes a real heritage. Maps with comprehensive coverage were produced at a scale of 1:200,000 and others with significant coverage at 1:50,000.
• IGN has maintained relations with each of these countries outside the context of their independence; continuing to work with them on projects to update information, free henceforth from their colonial legacy.
• In 1968, Creation of FIT Conseil, a firm of surveyors, which would become GEOFIT GROUP in 2017.
• Originally a department within IGN, IGN FI was externalised in 1986.
• GEOFIT GROUP becomes majority shareholder of IGN France International. IGN, which had become the French national institute for geographic and forest information in 2012, retained a shareholding in the company and continues to be IGN France International’s preferred technical partner for exports.In 2017, IGN France International becomes IGN FI.
• In 2020, GEOFIT GROUP transfers its international activities to IGN FI.

This new chapter has seen IGN FI, now a subsidiary of GEOFIT GROUP and international operator for IGN, take on a new dimension with increased capabilities in its activities, innovation and investment. It now occupies a leading position in the areas central to the challenges of resource and territorial management.