The African Development Bank has charged the first graduating cohort from the African Development Institute’s Public Finance Management Academy for Africa to serve as a standard bearers across the Continent.

Trainees numbering 52 from 26 African countries successfully completed a final phase of training on "Enhancing Accountability, Transparency, and Curbing Corruption and Illicit Financial Flows in Africa" culminating in the graduation ceremony in Abuja, Nigeria on December 14, 2023.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Economic Development in Africa Report (2020) on the theme “Tackling Illicit Financial Flow for Sustainable Development in Africa”, one-sixth of the continent’s aggregate government revenues derive from corporate tax and ten percent of that revenue (US$6.7 billion) is lost to tax avoidance.

The report estimated capital flight from Africa at US$88.6 billion sannually for the period 2013 – 2015 which represent 3.7% of Africa’s GDP), which represents whereas total ODA and FDI for the same period stood at US$48 billion and US$59 billion, respectively.  The Report further suggests that between 2000 and 2015, the total illicit capital flight from Africa amounted to $836 billion, which is more than Africa’s total external debt estimated at $770 billion, in 2018.

In view of this an 18-month structured training course under the auspices of the Public Finance Management Academy in collaboration with experts from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and other related institutions was organized, bringing together senior-level officials from ministries of finance and planning, central banks, and other public financial management institutions from all African countries.

The participants underwent rigorous training to complete the Public Finance Management Executive Training Series on the public finance management cycle and ecosystem.

The training’s six modules comprised: Domestic resource mobilisation; Macro-fiscal modelling and forecasting; Public budgeting and expenditure management; Debt Management and Transparency; Public-Private Partnerships in PFM; and Accountability, Transparency, curbing Corruption and Illicit Financial Flows. 

At the graduation ceremony,  the African Development Bank charged the first cohort of graduates from its Public Finance Management Academy for Africa (PFMA) to serve as standard-bearers for embedding accountability across Africa.

Kevin Urama, the Bank’s Chief Economist and Vice President called on African countries to come together to mobilise and effectively manage the resources needed to increase productivity and create wealth "in Africa for Africans".

He stressed that poor public resource management is costing Africa dearly. 

"Currently, African countries lose nearly $90 billion a year to illicit financial flows, and much more to illicit resource flows and theft, poorly implemented fiscal incentives, and excessive reliance on commodity exports for foreign exchange earnings.  This exposes countries to highly volatile global market prices and highly vulnerable supply chains. This situation is unacceptable.” 

The graduates now meet the requirements to be certified by the Bank Group and its partners as public finance management experts in their countries.

The PFMA works to strengthen African countries’ capacity in economic governance and knowledge management to enhance wealth creation and prudent management of public finances to improve the quality of life of Africans.