World
Nigeria Trading Across the Continent Under NIDO-Africa’s Leadership
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
In this insightful interview, Professor Jude Osakwe, Continental Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO) Africa, highlights the rapidly shifting global trade landscape and the renewed focus on intra-African trade. This necessitates convening the Regional Trade Conference — ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ — in Dakar, Senegal, from 24–28 November 2025.
Professor Osakwe underlined a key message: while multilateral trade frameworks are increasingly fragmented, this development presents a strong opportunity to strengthen the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Consequently, Nigeria’s NIDO-Africa “Made-in-Nigeria” initiative aims to advance the country’s trade aspirations within the framework of the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Below are excerpts from the interview. Here are the interview excerpts:
In the context of geopolitical shift, how would you characterize and argue that the forthcoming event ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ is an integral aspect of Intra-Africa trade policy under the African Union?
The ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ event represents a critical convergence of continental trade ambitions and national industrial capacity at a pivotal moment in global economic realignment. As multilateral trade frameworks face increasing fragmentation and regional blocs strengthen, Africa’s response through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) signals our determination to chart an independent economic trajectory.
Nigeria, as Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation, occupies a unique position in this continental project. The ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ initiative directly advances the AU’s Agenda 2063 objectives by showcasing indigenous manufacturing capacity, promoting value addition within the continent, and demonstrating that intra-African trade can be anchored in substantive productive capabilities rather than merely raw material exchange.
This event specifically addresses a fundamental challenge in African integration: the current reality that intra-African trade represents only approximately 15-18% of the continent’s total trade, significantly lower than other regions. By highlighting Nigerian-manufactured products, from processed foods and pharmaceuticals to technology solutions and creative industries, we are providing tangible evidence that African nations can serve as both producers and consumers within a genuinely integrated market. This isn’t theoretical policy; it’s operational implementation of the AfCFTA’s vision.
Under NIDO-Africa leadership, what are the expectations during this event? Despite the fact that it is focused on intra-Africa, are foreign traders and importers your targets, as a priority of raising the level of economic cooperation with Nigeria?
NIDO-Africa’s leadership brings a distinctive diaspora perspective, we understand both African productive capacity and global market demands, having operated at this intersection throughout our professional lives. Our expectations for this event are strategically layered.
Primarily, we’re facilitating meaningful intra-African commercial connections. This means bringing together procurement officers from African governments, regional distributors, retail chains, and manufacturing firms who can establish long-term supply relationships with Nigerian producers. The goal is to create sustainable trade corridors, not one-off transactions.
However, your question touches on an important strategic dimension: foreign traders and importers are indeed significant targets, though we’d characterize them as complementary rather than competing priorities. Nigeria’s economic growth requires both expanded African market access AND continued global trade partnerships. Foreign importers, particularly from the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, serve multiple strategic purposes:
* They bring capital, technology transfer, and global best practices
* They can establish joint ventures that enhance Nigerian productive capacity
* They provide access to markets beyond Africa’s current absorption capacity
* Their participation validates the quality and competitiveness of Nigerian products
The sophistication of our approach is precisely that we’re not presenting this as an either/or proposition. We’re positioning Nigeria as a continental manufacturing hub that serves African markets while maintaining robust global trade relationships. Foreign traders who engage now gain preferred access to Africa’s 1.3 billion-person market through a Nigerian gateway.
Can you give an assessment and significance of the current level of economic cooperation between Nigeria and, for instance with the United States, China, India and Russia?
Nigeria maintains strategically important but differently configured relationships with each of these global powers, and understanding these dynamics is essential to appreciating where opportunities for deeper cooperation exist:
United States: The relationship centers on energy (Nigeria was historically a significant oil supplier), security cooperation, and development assistance. While trade volumes remain substantial, there’s significant unrealized potential in non-oil sectors, technology, pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, and creative industries. The challenge is moving beyond a resource-extraction paradigm toward genuine industrial partnership.
China: China has become Nigeria’s largest trading partner and a major infrastructure financier, particularly in railways, power generation, and telecommunications. However, the relationship faces tensions around trade imbalances, Nigerian imports from China far exceed exports, and concerns about local manufacturing displacement. The opportunity lies in negotiating technology transfer agreements and joint ventures that build Nigerian productive capacity rather than simply facilitating imports.
India: Often underappreciated, India maintains deep pharmaceutical, automotive, and ICT connections with Nigeria. The relationship is characterized by significant Indian investment in Nigerian manufacturing and a substantial expatriate business community. This represents perhaps the most balanced model among Nigeria’s major trading relationships, with genuine two-way flows in goods, services, and human capital.
Russia: Historically limited, this relationship has focused on energy sector cooperation (particularly nuclear power aspirations) and mineral resources. Recent geopolitical shifts have created space for expanded engagement, though infrastructural and financial linkages remain underdeveloped compared to other major powers.
The significance of these relationships is that they collectively demonstrate Nigeria’s multi-alignment strategy in an increasingly multipolar world. However, they also reveal a persistent pattern: Nigeria frequently engages as a commodity supplier and finished goods importer rather than as a manufacturing power. The ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ initiative aims to fundamentally disrupt this pattern.
In your opinion, what are the landmark achievements since the establishment of AGOA and Nigeria?
The African Growth and Opportunity Act, established in 2000, represents America’s most sustained trade initiative toward Sub-Saharan Africa, offering duty-free access to US markets for thousands of product categories. For Nigeria specifically, AGOA’s achievements are mixed—revealing both opportunities captured and potential unrealized.
Landmark achievements include:
*Energy sector exports: AGOA facilitated billions of dollars in petroleum exports to the US, though this sector would likely have developed independently given global oil demand
*Agricultural product access: Nigerian cocoa, cashew nuts, and sesame seeds have gained improved US market access, supporting smallholder farmers
*Textile and apparel potential: Though underutilized compared to East African nations, AGOA’s textile provisions have supported nascent garment manufacturing
However, the more significant story is unrealized potential:
Nigeria has chronically underutilized AGOA compared to countries like Kenya, South Africa, or Lesotho. Our non-oil exports under AGOA remain modest, representing a fraction of what our productive capacity could achieve. This underperformance stems from:
*Inadequate awareness among Nigerian manufacturers
*Compliance and certification challenges
*Infrastructure bottlenecks affecting export logistics
*Limited value-addition in sectors where we have raw material advantages
The landmark lesson from AGOA isn’t just about what’s been achieved—it’s about what becomes possible when market access meets productive capacity. Countries that invested in export-ready manufacturing infrastructure captured transformative benefits. Nigeria’s current focus on industrial policy and manufactured exports, exemplified by initiatives like ‘Made-in-Nigeria,’ positions us to finally realize AGOA’s full potential before its current extension expires in 2025 and as discussions for its successor framework develop.
China is an active player now offering tariffs-free for Africa. Do you think that can play a noticeable role in providing long-term bilateral trade solution and, most probably, support the proposed ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ program being pursued by NIDO-Africa?
China’s announcement of tariff-free access for African least-developed countries, and its broader “Global South” economic engagement, represents both significant opportunity and strategic challenge for Nigeria and the ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ agenda.
The opportunity dimension:
China’s tariff elimination could theoretically provide Nigerian manufacturers with preferential access to the world’s second-largest consumer market, potentially transformative for sectors like processed agricultural goods, light manufacturing, and resource-based products. For manufacturers building capacity under the ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ program, this represents a massive potential market beyond Africa’s current absorption capacity.
Additionally, China’s established infrastructure investments in Nigeria, from railways to manufacturing zones—create potential synergies. If Nigerian producers can leverage these facilities to achieve economies of scale for Chinese market export, we could see genuine industrial deepening.
The challenge dimension requires candor:
Nigeria must be strategic rather than simply enthusiastic. China’s tariff-free offer, while generous in headline terms, operates within a complex reality:
*China’s manufacturing efficiency means the competitive pressure on emerging Nigerian industries could be overwhelming
*Historical trade patterns show massive imbalances, Nigeria imports far more from China than it exports
*Without deliberate industrial policy safeguards, preferential access could accelerate deindustrialization rather than support manufacturing growth
The strategic approach for ‘Made-in-Nigeria’:
Rather than viewing Chinese engagement passively, NIDO-Africa and Nigerian policymakers should pursue aggressive negotiation for:
*Technology transfer requirements linked to market access
*Joint venture mandates ensuring Nigerian ownership stakes and skills development
*Local content requirements that build indigenous supply chains
*Sector-specific protection for infant industries while exporting in areas of established competitiveness
The long-term bilateral solution isn’t simply about accessing Chinese markets—it’s about ensuring Chinese engagement actively builds Nigerian productive capacity. If ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ products achieve quality certification for Chinese markets while we simultaneously protect space for domestic industries to mature, then yes, this could be transformative. Without such strategic conditionality, tariff-free access might simply formalize dependency.
What opportunities and incentives are currently available, especially for potential importers of goods and entrepreneurial services from Nigeria?
This is where the ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ event becomes practically valuable for business decision-makers. Nigeria currently offers a compelling value proposition for importers and trading partners, though these opportunities remain underappreciated in global markets:
Immediate Commercial Opportunities:
*Processed agricultural products: Nigeria is a global leader in cocoa, cassava, sesame, and ginger production. Value-added products (cocoa powder, cassava flour, processed spices) offer quality at competitive prices with growing international certification
*Pharmaceutical and healthcare products: Nigerian pharmaceutical manufacturers increasingly meet international quality standards (WHO-GMP certification) and offer significant cost advantages for both African and global markets
*Creative and digital services: Nollywood productions, music, software development, and creative services represent high-growth export sectors
*Solid minerals: Beyond oil, Nigeria has underexplored reserves of tin, columbite, gold, and lithium, critical for technology and energy transition sectors
*Engineering and construction services: Nigerian firms have growing capacity for infrastructure delivery across Africa
*Incentives and Facilitation Mechanisms:
Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) support: *Export grant facilities, market information, and trade mission sponsorship
*Export Processing Zones: Tax incentives, duty-free importing of inputs, and streamlined customs procedures for export-oriented manufacturers
*AfCFTA rules of origin benefits: Products manufactured in Nigeria qualify for preferential access across African markets
*Diaspora investment facilitation: NIDO networks provide cultural bridge and due diligence support for foreign partners
*Naira depreciation dynamics: Currency adjustments have made Nigerian exports significantly more price-competitive internationally
What makes this moment distinctive:
Nigeria is simultaneously investing in power sector reform, transportation infrastructure, and digital connectivity, addressing historical bottlenecks that previously constrained export reliability. Early entrants who establish supply relationships now will benefit from improving operational environment while competing players face higher entry barriers later.
For entrepreneurial service importers specifically, consultancies, technology firms, financial services, Nigeria’s 200+ million population, growing middle class, and youthful demographic create one of Africa’s most dynamic service markets. Foreign firms entering now via the ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ network gain first-mover advantages and local partnerships that determine long-term market position.
Would you, finally, agree that foreign players are generally competing and rivalry-ing for existing investment opportunities based on the fact that Nigeria maintains a conducive business environment, and has political stability?
This question requires a nuanced, honest response that serves your audience better than diplomatic oversimplification.
The competition for Nigerian opportunities is real and intensifying—but the drivers are complex:
*Foreign players, from American tech firms to Chinese manufacturers to Indian pharmaceutical companies, are indeed actively competing for Nigerian market position. However, this competition is driven less by current “conducive business environment” claims and more by:
*Market size and demographic trajectory: Nigeria will be the world’s third-most populous nation by 2050. No serious global business strategy can ignore this market scale
*Resource endowment: Beyond oil, Nigeria’s agricultural potential, solid minerals, and renewable energy capacity remain substantially underdeveloped
*Regional gateway positioning: Nigeria’s influence across West Africa and its role in AfCFTA make it a continental strategic anchor
*Competitive positioning relative to rivals: Companies enter Nigeria not because conditions are optimal, but because competitors are entering—creating a self-reinforcing dynamic
Now, the necessary candor about “conducive business environment” and “political stability”. Nigeria faces well-documented challenges that honest assessment requires acknowledging:
*Infrastructure deficits (power, transportation, ports) that increase operational costs
*Security concerns in certain regions affecting supply chain reliability
*Regulatory complexity and inconsistency across different government levels
*Foreign exchange management issues that complicate repatriation
*Periodic political transitions that create policy uncertainty
However, and this is strategically crucial, successful businesses understand that emerging markets offer risk-return trade-offs:
The same factors that create operational challenges also create barriers that protect market share once established. Companies that enter Nigeria now, master its complexities, and build local partnerships (precisely what ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ facilitates) gain sustainable competitive advantages that later entrants cannot easily replicate.
The more accurate framing:
*Foreign players compete for Nigerian opportunities not because the business environment is perfect, but because:
*Nigeria’s economic fundamentals (population, resources, market size) are transformational
*The government is actively pursuing reforms (power sector, infrastructure, ease-of-business)
*Current challenges create discounted entry valuations for capable operators
*The alternative, waiting for “perfect conditions”, means ceding market position to competitors
NIDO-Africa’s role in this context:
We help bridge the gap between Nigeria’s potential and its current operational reality. The ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ event specifically reduces information asymmetry, facilitates credible partnerships, and helps foreign players navigate complexity. We’re not claiming Nigeria has achieved ideal conditions, we’re demonstrating that substantial opportunities exist for strategically sophisticated players, and we’re providing the networks and knowledge to capture those opportunities effectively.
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.
