World
Annan Identifies Causes of Current Level of Development in Africa
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
In an insightful conversation, the President/CEO of the Institute of African Leadership (IoFAL), Dr Bennett Annan, discusses management styles of African leaders, the system of governance, diversities in political culture and the extent these affect progress and development.
He points to the lack of effective monitoring and evaluation as factors determining the current level of development in Africa. He unreservedly argues that his Institute of African Leadership (IoFAL) provides the necessary cutting-edge skills for young aspiring leaders for Africa. Here are the interview excerpts:
What prompted the recent research titled Leadership Styles of Africans: A Study Using Path-Goal Leadership Theory, something related to management styles of African leaders?
Several years ago, when I was a teenager growing up in Ghana, I watched various politicians talk about policies that they believed will help alleviate poverty, yet when they came to power nothing really good happened to their people. I wondered why?
During that same period of time, I also read in the newspapers many, many times how poor Africans were and how the leaders have mismanaged their countries’ resources. But these were intelligent people, so why?
In 2007, I conducted my first research study in America entitled West African Managers in American Businesses and set up six research sites for the project: New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, North Carolina, Colorado, and California.
I went to these locations and did interviews, both with individuals and focus groups. I realized how intelligent these West Africans were, and how they had assimilated into the American system by practising participative leadership styles, finding success as managerial leaders in many organizations in corporate America.
Then I asked myself why managerial leaders in Africa can’t do the same, because we are capable, and I believe the answer was not far-fetched. The environment in Africa needs to change, and that prompted me to delve into this research of “African Leadership Styles,” to find out the gap between our managerial styles in Africa and that of the industrialized nations, using the Path-Goal Leadership Questionnaire. I used SurveyGizmo to collect data from Africans from various countries, including Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and others.
For several years, I’ve been wondering why someone won’t do something about this, why someone won’t figure out why we are the richest continent in the world and yet the poorest, why someone won’t sit down and figure this out. I’ve been told so many excuses and reasons why this cannot be done, but I still didn’t give up finding some solution to this problem.
Just like Albert Einstein said, we cannot do the same thing over and over and over again and expect different results. For Africans, this means we cannot keep mismanaging our resources and seeking help from industrialized nations in the form of loans we are unable to repay. We cannot ask for forgiveness again and again and think things will get better.
Based on this research, we at the Institute of African Leadership have started something little to stop the failed leadership problem, because I believe something little is better than a whole lot of nothing. That is why we delved into the research to find out what managerial leaders in Africa should do to catch up with the industrialized nations, and the answer was very simple.
The findings of my research showed that the only thing that industrialized nations do that Africans do not is to use the participative leadership style most often. Africans use this participative leadership style the least. That means all we need to do is to practice this participative leadership style of management more often. My findings also found that the participative leadership style is not new to African managerial leaders. In fact, my research shows that we practice participative leadership style more than our counterparts in the industrialized nations but do this the least – that means it does not come to us easily.
Why do you think participative leadership is unique to Africa? Do you also see the lack of effective monitoring and evaluation as factors determining the level of development in Africa?
First of all, I want to talk a little bit about what participative leadership style is, so we can be on the same page. Let’s start from the word “participative,” a derivative of the word “participate,” meaning that this leadership style requires participation.
Participative leadership style, as we know it, is when the leader actively involves team members in the decision-making process. In general, it involves all team members in finding solutions to problems. In a way, the leaders turn to the team for input, ideas, and opinions instead of making all decisions on their own. For this style to work, the leader needs to understand the team has the skills and ideas that could benefit the decision-making process, especially when the team owns the problem.
Now, let’s look at Africa for a moment. Research shows African managerial leaders use the directive/autocratic leadership style. The leader retains as much power and decision-making authority as possible. The leader does not consult employees, nor are they allowed to give any input. Employees are expected to obey orders without receiving any explanations.
Most Africans find the participative management style foreign because they are used to the directive/autocratic style of leadership, which is outdated and adds costs to the organization. The participative style is modern, reduces costs, and increases profit margins. The task at hand is to create a plan to change the African managerial leadership style from directive/autocratic to participative.
However, Africans in management positions can be successful if they make the change from a directive/autocratic to a participative leadership style at the institutional and personal levels. Though these are difficult things to do, as this study has found, they still have to do it.
There is a sense of urgency here. Africans need to embrace cultural change as a means of making themselves ready for globalization, or else they are likely to be left behind in the global economy. This may result in further reducing levels of socio-economic development and standards of living, worsening education and health, and increasing fertility and mortality rates. If nothing is done about this issue, we would be denying the African people their best hope for escaping poverty.
The other question is whether I see the lack of effective monitoring and evaluation as factors determining the level of development in Africa. Yes, of course, I do see that, but one thing about the participative leadership style is the belief that where the problem is, lies the solution. This is what I mean: If we can use this participative leadership style, it allows us to create teams to solve the problem, with inputs, ideas, and opinions coming from members of the group. They figure out ways and means to address the problem instead of relying on the people at the top of the organization for a solution. When the decisions and solutions come from the members of the team, these members tend to own and practice the solutions wholeheartedly, unlike when the solution comes from the top, in which case the team members are less likely to embrace the solutions because they did not buy into them.
Do you agree that there are diversities in political culture in African countries? What could be the best way to systematize and combine efforts in implementing policies to the benefit of the population?
Yes, I do agree that there are diversities in political culture in African countries. Let me tell you this: There are individual differences in the political culture of the African countries – talents, skills, and experiences. We are all very different, even twins because we carry different DNA, fingerprints, and so on. However, we are all human beings who are generally gregarious, being together, working together, and solving problems together.
Research has shown that Africans, by nature, are a collectivist culture. That means our culture places emphasis on cohesiveness among individuals; we prioritize the group over the self. We find common values and goals in whatever we do. In a way, this is the fundamental of a participative leadership style, where the members of the team get together to solve problems. So, we have these participative leadership style traits in us, but the leader does not use the grouping ideology in collecting inputs, ideas, and experiences in the decision-making process.
I strongly believe the best way to systematize and combine efforts in implementing policies to the benefit of the population is to fall back on this collectivist culture that we embrace amongst the African people as a first step. This is the very foundation of making the change I have been talking about from the autocratic/directive leadership style to participative leadership style.
Next is to use cognitive behavioural techniques to change the mindset – a process of “melting” the autocratic/directive leadership style and refreezing into a participative leadership style mould. This creates a new mindset that allows us to seek inputs, ideas, and experiences from members of the team in decision-making and problem-solving.
Finally, this where I come in. I have about 15 different training lessons on the African Participative Leadership Training Program. These lessons are about 1 hour each, and they are online, on-demand at our website (www.iofal.org). The good news is these lessons are free and currently under construction; they should be ready to go by May 2021.
The training program is comprised of lessons on the rationale behind the change of autocratic/directive leadership style to the participative, and it runs through lessons like changing the current mindset of the African managerial leaders and the process for how to make this change work. Then there are also lessons regarding unethical behaviours. The beauty of this training program is how the change process incorporates the African culture, making it a very unique style of managerial leadership that we call the African participative leadership style.
Our plan is to secure location sites in every Black African country with representatives who will engage in the promotion of this program, advertising and running commercials and getting people to know about this free African participative leadership style training program. We want to make sure that every single African participative managerial leader gets access to this training no matter where they come from or their economic status. As long as they have internet access, whether through their phones or through their laptop computers, they can go through this training program successfully from anywhere.
Just to give you a clue as to how the program is laid out: First, participants take a pre-lesson assessment, then they start the very first Lesson 1. After each and every lesson, participants take a 10-question quiz to make sure that learning has taken place; if they pass, they jump on to the next lesson. Finally, after the 15 lessons, there is an exam of about 25 questions. Once they pass, an electronic certificate is emailed to them to show that they have gone through this training program and they are deemed ready to put what they have learned to practice.
In what ways would you argue that the Institute of African Leadership is an educational institution that provides the necessary skills for young aspiring leaders?
This is a very good question. First of all, my research study used the Path-Goal Leadership Questionnaire to measure the directive/autocratic leadership style of participants among four different age groups. The results show the 18 to 29 age group had a directive/autocratic style average score of 28.5, the lowest among the four groups measured: (a) 18 to 29 years, (b) 30 to 44 years, (c) 45 to 59 years, and (d) 60 and older.
The study also showed that the same 18 to 29 age group had a participative style average score of 24.8, the highest among the four groups measured. Thus, young aspiring African leaders between 18 and 29 years old are predominately participative-centric, and less likely to be so as they get older. This group of African leaders needs the training now to reinforce their current participative style before they age into the next group when it gets harder to change their mindset.
Entrepreneurship is very challenging. What keeps you personally motivated as a chief executive officer of the Institute of African Leadership?
I agree that entrepreneurship comes with a lot of challenges, and some are difficult to overcome, but I know I have to deal with it come what may. I have been teaching and working as a mechanical and manufacturing engineer for some 40 years now, and it seems almost impossible to manage another career – training and developing African managerial leaders. I have dropped that career and am currently pursuing a training and development career.
I have been an entrepreneur once before and failed, then I went back to my predictable career, working again for an organization as an engineer. I have learned my lessons, especially when it comes to funding. This time, I have a pool of capital that will lead me to establish the first phase of this training program, which is getting the website and the lessons fully completed and ready for the participants, and I am happy about that. However, the second phase, which entails the dissemination of the training program via advertising (e.g., radio, TV, billboards, and newspapers) throughout all the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, requires additional resources and funding to make it work. I am currently seeking help from monetary organizations.
There are numerous factors that keep me personally motivated as a director of the Institute of African Leadership: (a) my will to problem-solve, (b) my vision, and (c) my education. However, and like I said before, I continue to ruminate several years ago, when I was a teenager growing up in Ghana and watched various politicians talk about policies that they believed would help alleviate poverty. Yet, when they came to power, nothing really good happened for their people. I wondered why? During that same period of time, I also read in the newspapers many times how poor Africans were and how the leaders have mismanaged their countries’ resources. But these were intelligent people, so why? This is where my will to problem-solve comes in, wanting to at least contribute my share of solving the failed leadership in Africa. I believe, where there is a will, there is a way.
Also, like I said earlier on, my research found that Africans in US businesses have assimilated into the American system by practising participative leadership styles, finding success as managerial leaders in many organizations in corporate America. That tells me African managerial leaders are capable, but it seems the environment in Africa does not allow them and that environment needs to be changed. I’ve been told so many excuses and reasons why this cannot be done, but I still didn’t give up finding some solution to this problem. This is where my vision for Africa comes in, where one day through the African Participative Leadership Training Program (APLTP) we will discover our true selves just like that, embrace our problems, become capable to solve our own problems our own way, grab our power back, and the whole game changes. Africa will be economically free forever. Japan, Singapore and other nations did it, why can’t we?
Of all the ways, I describe myself – mechanical engineer, manufacturing and quality engineer, business manager, counselor, professor, professional consultant, author, and researcher – perhaps the most fitting is multipotentiality, which is defined as someone whose interests span multiple fields or areas rather than someone who is proficient in just one. I hold a Bachelor of Science, B.S., degree and Master of Science, M.S., degree in mechanical engineering, a Further Education Teachers’ Certificate, (F.E.T.C.), a Master of Business Administration, MBA, degree, a Doctor of Education, Ed.D., degree in organizational leadership, a Master of Arts, M.A., degree in clinical psychology, certification as a marriage and family therapist, MFT, and a Doctor of Psychology, PsyD. This is where my education comes in, an excellent corporate trainer, teaching African leaders to help their followers cultivate their skills and knowledge by providing complete training and sharing my rich and tremendous knowledge and expertise in ways that motivate them.
What is your vision for the Institute of African Leadership and where do you see this business of education and training in the next 5 years, especially clients from Africa?
My vision for the Institute of African Leadership is to create wholesale success and overperformance in organizations in Africa, and eventually decrease poverty, increase the standard of living, and change the way Africans think and act at the institutional and personal level. I know that as the founder I will be expected to generate ideas, and when a competitor emerges, it will be my responsibility to come up with a response plan. When I hit an impenetrable obstacle, my job will be to come up with an alternate plan to move forward. I am capable of moving this program forward because I have tremendous knowledge and rich experience that spans over 40 years as I indicated previously.
There are so many unknown factors that come along with any entrepreneurial venture. For example, how long a business will exist and whether it will be profitable. In this case, will these African managerial leaders like the training and development service that we are creating? There are no solid, reliable answers to any of these questions. However, one thing that I can assure you is the training, development lessons will be online in May 2021 and maintaining this program online will go on forever at no cost to the participants.
In the next 5 years, I see the Institute of African Leadership (IoFAL) will be in every organization, workplaces, everywhere in every sub-Saharan African country, training and developing African managerial leaders in the African Participative Leadership Training Program to achieve our own unique management philosophy, one that is deep-rooted in the African culture, like Japan and others.
Kester Kenn Klomegah is a versatile researcher and passionate contributor, most of his well-resourced articles are reprinted elsewhere in a number of reputable foreign media.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A $1 million funding package has been secured by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup, Echovane, to expand its market research platform.
The fresh capital would be used by the company to build AI agents that execute market research end-to-end, used by Fortune-500 firms, including P&G, Haleon, and Kantar.
Echovane will utilise the funds, co-led by Titan Capital and Neon Fund, to make complex market research a done-for-you AI-native service.
The platform is built on the premise that AI should take on the machinery of research while researchers retain control over the judgment. The result should be faster execution without sacrificing rigour, traceability or trust.
Echovane was founded by former Amazon, Stripe, Gojek and Razorpay product leaders and graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology, Smriti Gupta, Vipul Nair and Himadri Roy.
They initially set out to build an AI moderator for consumer interviews. But the deeper they went, the clearer it became that the interview was only a fraction of the problem. Research teams were still spending weeks recruiting participants, coordinating fieldwork, analysing evidence and turning it into something the business could act on.
So, the founders expanded Echovane into the execution layer for the entire research process.
“We thought better AI interviews would unlock faster research. But that was only one step in the research operations, for one methodology of research.
“In reality, research is more complex, and can vary from interviews to unobtrusive observations and longitudinal studies. It has multi-level complexity including finding niche participants, getting the research completed on time with them and maintaining quality checks,” the chief executive of Echovane, Smriti Gupta, stated.
“This funding allows us to deepen the agent infrastructure behind Echovane, expand our multimodal capabilities, and strengthen the global participant network required to deliver increasingly complex studies with consistency,” the chief technical officer, Vipul Nair, noted.
Also commenting, the chief operating officer of Echovane, Himadri Roy, said, “Having done the research ourselves, we understand the operational pain researchers have to go through to conduct a good research that gives useful insights.”
“Echovane has made complex, multi-market studies feel simple. They find the right hard-to-reach participants, handle the nuances across markets and languages, and deliver actionable insights with remarkable speed and consistency,” the Consumer Science and Product Experience Lead for Haleon, Zee Alcasid, disclosed.
“Echovane turned a month of product research into two days. They reached exactly the right participants and let us test, learn and iterate continuously across multiple audiences, countries, product variants all within a single study that would be impossible to execute at speed and scale,” the chief product officer for Trustly, Adam D’arcy, stated.
A spokesperson for Titan Capital said, “We have backed Smriti, Vipul and Himadri because they have deeply understood why market research has stayed slow and expensive for decades.
“With Echovane, they are building an AI-native, end-to-end research platform focused on the quality of the final insight, encoding each client’s context into a system that gets sharper with every study.
“They are turning research from a recurring expense into compounding infrastructure — faster, cheaper and genuinely deeper. Their first-principles thinking and capital-efficient execution gave us confidence in Echovane’s long-term potential.”
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Russia’s system of foreign students’ admission is currently experiencing a completely different shape, due to the rapidly shifting geopolitical reality. The emerging trends are closely connected with increasing the number of highly interested applicants rather than the quality of education. The geopolitical shift is pushing Russia to make education for young Africans an ultimate priority. The quota campaign has already begun as the figure compares favourably with previous benchmarks but, to some considerable extent, noticeable challenges are currently affecting enrollment from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Despite that, general interest in Russian education among foreign nationals is increasing; the quota campaign confirms this trend. Last year, for instance, there were about 144,000 registrations in Rossotrudnichestvo’s Education in Russian system. The number has exceeded 160,000 in 2026. What is important here is that Russia shows preparedness to get more students from developing countries, especially from Africa and uses it as a factor for influencing its foreign policy in the region.
Regarding educational initiatives, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with relevant agencies and organisations are active in Africa. Noticeably, Russia is developing and expanding the existing, successfully operating cooperation in the sphere of education. In fact, priority is given to projects in the field of education and training of professional personnel for African countries. Currently, over 37,000 students from Africa are studying at Russian universities. Reports say a gradual increase in the number of scholarships for African citizens and the expansion of the range of professional training programs will provide a strong incentive for further promoting education at Russian universities.
This will continue to actively strengthen inter-university ties with African partners, including through specialised umbrella organisations such as the Russian-African Network University, the Consortium of Technical Universities “Nadra Africa” based at the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University, the Russian-African Network Transport University, and the Consortium of Russian Universities Working in West Africa based at the NGO “Centre for Public Diplomacy.”
Reports further indicated that the Rossotrudnichestvo representative offices—the Russian Science and Culture Centres—operating in eight African countries, as well as the Open Education Centres operating under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Education in 31 African countries, serve as a solid foundation for our humanitarian presence in Africa. They serve as conduits for the Russian language and culture on the continent. It is, however, hoped that their number would only increase in the subsequent years.
While addressing the staff and students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Russia’s readiness to cooperate actively in the sustainable economic development and to strengthen efforts at training the needed specialists and professionals for Africa. After the collapse of the Soviet system in 1991, there were problems sustaining relations with Africa. Then, after more than a decade, Russia started to return to Africa. This process has been ongoing for the past 15 years, according to the top Russian diplomat.
According to Lavrov, these past few years have been characterised by frequent interactions between Russian and African Foreign Ministers, plethora of MoUs were signed that set out the broad parameters of cooperation. Russia’s Education Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry have raised the quotas for many African countries, the highest given to Angola, Ethiopia, Namibia and Mozambique, and South Africa.
According to a report posted on the MFA website in August, for instance, some 1,120 Angolans have enrolled, on Russian scholarships or grants, at various institutes and universities throughout the Russian Federation. Figures for other African countries are available on the official information portal of the ministry.
Besides state-sponsored students, Russia’s Education Ministry has also launched a large-scale educational campaign targeting the recruitment of private foreign students into its educational institutions across the Russian Federation. The program is to be implemented until 2025, which has a website (studyinrussia) translated into different languages, seeks to boost the popularity and improve its image abroad.
Undoubtedly, Russia aims at strengthening the next generation of pro-Russian elites who will help promote its interests, including long-term ones in their home countries. With this in mind, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ultimately, hope to improve the efficiency of “soft power” in Africa, though not to the levels during the Soviet era.
Understandably, Russia is now targeting Africa’s fast-growing population as a huge potential market for knowledge transfer and export education. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a widely circulated Russian daily newspaper, reported that Russia has been focusing on the young population in developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, targeting the elite and middle class in these markets for the export of education, which has great potential.
The newspaper reported on the advantages of multiculturalism and cross-cultural interactive activities paving the way for integration in Russian society. As far back as 2023, Russia’s Federation Council and State Duma (upper and lower houses of parliament) passed a bill. That bill was finally signed into law, allowing foreign students the right to employment, a replica of the work and study model in Western and European countries.
Professor Viktor Sadovnichy, Rector of Moscow State University and Chairman of the Russian Rectors’ Association, an organisation that unites more than 700 heads of higher education institutions, argued that education and demography are interconnected; developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America have growing middle classes. “This favours the export of our education; it has great potential cooperating in the education sphere, it could serve as a huge market – training young professionals that are in demand on the labour market,” Sadovnichy said, addressing a plenary meeting of the Russian Rectors’ Association at Peter the Great St Petersburg State Polytechnic University.
Professor Natalia Vlasova, Deputy Rector at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of the Ural State University of Economics in Yekaterinburg, explained that many African countries are developing rapidly, and the African elites and the growing middle-class have great potential for sponsoring their children’s education abroad. “In the times of the Soviet Union, African countries were strategic partners, and now we should reactivate these relations because in the near future they will have big economic and political power. This could, indeed, be a huge market and has the business potential,” she noted assertively.
An educational survey released in September 2024, divided into five major groups, said Russia has made significant efforts at improving teaching (the learning environment), research, citations (research influence), knowledge transfer, and international outlook (staff, students, research) in the educational field, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
One year after launching a continental initiative designed to make excellence in public governance the foundation of a new drive to transform Africa, LEAD, the Africa CEO Forum’s pan-African leadership programme, takes stock of its first cohort and announces the launch of its second class. Built around a community of senior public decision-makers committed to modernising the state and to the continent’s digital transformation, this new cohort gathers for three days, from 28 to 30 August 2026, on the campus of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Rabat, Morocco.
A second cohort that confirms the programme’s durability
For its second class, LEAD brings together 50 fellows, senior public decision-makers engaged in the design and implementation of the continent’s economic and social policies. Over three days, participants take part in collective and collaborative working sessions, peer exchanges and meetings with figures from the public, business and academic spheres, in order to compare their practices and build shared responses to the major challenges of governance.
Speakers include Mehdi Jomaa, former Head of Government of Tunisia, Donald Kaberuka, Managing Partner & Founder, SouthBridge Group, and former President of the African Development Bank, Serge Ekue, President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), Sanjay Jain, co-creator of India Stack and Director of Digital Public Infrastructure, Gates Foundation, and Mauricio Cardenas, Professor of Professional Practice in Global Leadership, Columbia SIPA, and former Finance Minister of Colombia (2012-2018).
They share their reform experience, their public policy trade-offs and their view of continental priorities. Throughout the programme, the cohort benefits from the dedicated support of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Asafo & Co, BOAD, BCG and the African Development Bank, LEAD partners that have chosen to invest in the transformation of African public action.
LEAD, a pan-African community serving public action
Created by the AFRICA CEO FORUM, LEAD is a leadership programme whose ambition is to reposition Africa’s administrative elite as a driver of reform, of performance and of dialogue with all the continent’s stakeholders.
Designed for senior African public decision-makers, LEAD sets out to build a lasting community of public officials able to share their experience, compare their practices and build common solutions to the major economic, technological and institutional transformations under way in Africa. That community is structured around three pillars: modernizing the state, improving public services, and strengthening cooperation between governments, development institutions and private-sector players.
From fellows to alumni: a long-term initiative
Made up of 36 fellows drawn from a range of administrations and institutions and representing 24 countries across the continent, LEAD’s first cohort demonstrated the quality and the potential of this community from its very first year. In less than twelve months, six of its members have taken a significant step forward: two have been appointed ministers, two have moved into strategic positions at the highest level of the state and two have been promoted to chief executive roles. These moves, which account for 16.7% of the first class, show the role LEAD plays as an accelerator of impact within African administrations.
By bringing together a new cohort of fellows every year, each of them joining the LEAD alumni community, the initiative follows a long-term trajectory: in time, to unite several hundred African public decision-makers around a shared culture of transparency, performance and regional cooperation.
A first year devoted to public service and digital public infrastructure
Throughout the year, the fellows devoted their work to strengthening African public action, to make excellence in public governance a central lever of transformation. An awareness campaign, run as part of Africa Public Service Day, brought to light those who, within the continent’s administrations and institutions, are concretely transforming public policy and improving the services offered to citizens.
Members of the cohort also took part in a special round table held in Kigali during the ACF 2026, in order to carry their thinking to a wider community of public and private leaders. That forum reinforced LEAD’s role as a platform for dialogue between the administrative elite and the continent’s economic players. Digital public infrastructure (DPI) formed the main thread of this first year of work.
Discussions covered issues at the heart of the digital sovereignty of African states: digital identity, payments, secure data exchange, interoperability, governance and the protection of citizens. This work examined the conditions under which African states are developing, in some cases, and can develop, in others, shared, open infrastructure robust enough to improve the quality of public services while supporting local innovation and preserving the capacity of public authorities to set the rules of the game.
A white paper to move from consuming technology to creating value
This year of work concludes with the publication, in collaboration with BCG, LEAD’s Knowledge Partner, of a white paper on Africa’s place in the digital economy and in artificial intelligence. With the digital economy still accounting for around 5% of African GDP, against close to 15% worldwide, the paper calls on the continent to shift from a logic of technology consumption to one of value creation.
The white paper identifies three structuring priorities for African public actors:
- Building shared digital infrastructure that serves as the backbone of public services and private innovation.
- Pooling investment in order to reach critical mass and avoid the fragmentation of efforts across the continent.
- Favouring open and interoperable architectures, with trust and governance built in by design, so as to protect citizens while stimulating the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The white paper is available here to all public decision-makers, technical partners and institutions concerned.
“LEAD’s first cohort confirms a simple conviction: Africa already has the women and men capable of profoundly transforming public action. Our responsibility, either with our partners, is to give them, at pan-African level, a space in which to compare experience, build common solutions and bring forward a new generation of public policy. With this second cohort, we want to accelerate the move from ambition to execution, in particular on digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence, two decisive issues for sovereignty, for the effectiveness of the state and for value creation across the continent,” says Amir Ben Yahmed, President of the Africa CEO Forum.
