Africans must stand together to mobilise and efficiently manage the resources required to enhance productivity and create wealth in Africa for Africans.

The African Development Bank’s vice-president and chief economist, Kevin Urama, said this in Abuja.

Mr Urama spoke at the graduation of the inaugural graduands of the African Development Executive Training Programme of the AfDB’s Finance Management Academy.

While presenting their certificates, Mr Urama urged the graduates to be torch-bearers in Africa’s efforts to enshrine full transparency and accountability across the PFM ecosystems in their countries and the continent.

”The first cohort of 145 public officials nominated by 45 African countries commenced the 18-month structured capacity development programme in July 2022.

“Of these, 52 public officials from 26 countries have completed the CD programme and satisfied the conditions to be certified by the Bank Group and Partners as PFM experts in their respective countries,” he said.

Approved in June 2022 by the bank’s board of directors, the PFMA is designed to deliver high-level structured capacity development on public financial management to African countries.

The PFMA is an implementation activity of AfDB’s programme to strengthen the capacity of African countries in economic governance and knowledge management.

It also aims to enhance wealth creation and prudential management of public finances to improve the quality of life for Africans.

Mr Urama said the rationale for focusing on the PFM was that Africa was natural resource-rich and often cash-poor, and several studies attributed it to poor management of public resources.

According to Mr Urama, African countries lose almost $90 billion in illicit financial flows annually.

“And much more in illicit resource flows and resource theft, poorly implemented fiscal policy incentives, and excessive dependence on commodity exports for foreign exchange earnings. This exposes countries to highly volatile global market prices and vulnerable supply chains. This situation is not acceptable.

“The Academy provides opportunities for African countries and experts to share practical experiences and learn from each other to improve PFM practices across the continent,” he said.

Mr Urama said that by bringing together experts and practitioners from Africa and its development partners, The bank encouraged peer-to-peer learning among the experts and African practitioners.

He said it also aimed to ensure that PFM programmes were duly embedded in the realities of countries. The AfDB vice-president also commended all who had made the programme successful and called for collaboration to make Africa a great continent.

Meanwhile, Tope Fasua, the special adviser to the president on economic affairs in the office of the vice-president, said the programme’s curriculum was rounded and apt.

(NAN)