Nigeria has joined a pan-African effort to strengthen leadership and public financial management in the public sector through a development programme targeting senior officials involved in financial management reforms.
The initiative, implemented by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) with support from the Gates Foundation, is designed to improve the leadership capabilities of public officials while promoting peer learning among African leaders responsible for public financial management.
Nigeria and Tanzania joined the second cohort of the Leadership and Governance in Public Financial Management programme, while Ethiopia became the ninth country to participate in the third cohort.
Speaking in a webinar recording obtained by our correspondent on Monday, the Executive Secretary of ACBF, Mamadou Biteye, said the programme was structured to go beyond conventional technical training.
He said the initiative combines self-assessment, personal development plans, individual and group coaching, peer learning, technical assistance and case-based application to real public financial management challenges.
Biteye said, “The programme seeks to enhance the leadership capabilities of senior officials, those who are in the heart of PFM reform implementation, while also establishing a platform for peer-to-peer learning between African PFM leaders and information sharing between themselves.
“The programme has enrolled more than 295 participants across eight African countries since its launch in 2024.
“Nigeria and Tanzania joined the second cohort of the Leadership and Governance in Public Financial Management programme, while Ethiopia became the ninth country to participate in the third cohort.”
According to him, stronger leadership was essential to turning policies, strategies and technical reforms into sustainable results, as institutions could not rely on systems and technical expertise alone to achieve lasting change.
“Systems do not reform themselves.
“Budgets do not implement themselves.
“Digital platforms do not transform institutions by themselves. Policies do not deliver results by themselves.
“People do. And when they are equipped, inspired, and supported, institutions change.”
Also speaking, Senior Programme Officer at the Gates Foundation, Adil Abarabu, said technical capacity by itself was not sufficient to secure lasting reforms in public financial management.
Abarabu said many of the challenges facing officials in the sector were rooted in leadership, including resistance to change, coordination across institutions and the difficulty of sustaining reforms in complex political environments.
He said, “When we tend to think about strengthening public financial management, we focus on technical capacities, better budgeting, stronger administration, digital systems, strong expenditure management, and so on.”
He stressed that “technical capacity is not enough if you want to target lasting reforms.”
Abarabu said public institutions ultimately depended on the people managing them, making leadership development an important part of successful public financial management reforms.
He added that the role of government finance had become even more significant amid global economic uncertainty and declining aid, as decisions by ministries of finance, revenue authorities and treasuries directly affected governments’ capacity to fund education, healthcare, social protection and other public services.
