Nigeria moves to strengthen financial management in public sector

Nigeria has joined efforts to strengthen public sector leadership and public financial management across Africa through a leadership development programme for senior officials involved in financial management reforms.

The initiative, implemented by the African Capacity Building Foundation with support from the Gates Foundation, is designed to strengthen the leadership capabilities of public officials and promote peer-to-peer learning among African public financial management leaders.

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 recording of a webinar obtained by our correspondent on Sunday, the Executive Secretary of ACBF, Mamadou Biteye, said the initiative was designed to move beyond conventional technical training by combining self-assessment, personal development plans, individual and group coaching, peer learning, technical assistance and case-based application to real public financial management challenges.

He said the programme was aimed at ensuring that leadership development translates into behavioural change and institutional transformation.

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.”

He said stronger leadership was critical to translating policies, strategies and technical reforms into sustainable results, noting that public institutions could not achieve lasting reforms through systems and technical expertise alone.

Biteye said, “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 strengthening technical capacity alone was insufficient to achieve lasting reforms in public financial management.

Abarabu said many of the challenges confronting public financial management officials were linked to leadership, particularly managing resistance to change, working across institutional boundaries and sustaining reforms in difficult 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, however, that “technical capacity is not enough if you want to target lasting reforms.”

According to him, public institutions were ultimately driven by people, making leadership development critical to successful reforms.

He added that government finance had become increasingly important amid global economic volatility and reductions in aid, noting that decisions by ministries of finance, revenue authorities, and treasuries affected governments’ ability to finance education, healthcare, social protection, and other services.