Call for Massive Investment in Leadership As LEAPS Programme Reaches 295 Officials Across 8 Countries
The African Capacity Building Foundation, ACBF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have urged African governments to stop treating leadership as an afterthought, warning that technical expertise, sound policies and new systems will fail without leaders who can drive them.
“Systems do not reform themselves; budgets do not implement themselves; digital platforms do not transform institutions by themselves; and policies do not deliver results by themselves. People do,” ACBF Executive Secretary, Mr. Mamadou Biteye, said Thursday.
—THE PROBLEM: GOOD IDEAS, WEAK IMPLEMENTATION–
Speaking at an ACBF webinar on _“Leading Public Sector Transformation in Africa: Leadership Lessons from the LEAPS Programme,”_ Biteye said Africa’s biggest constraint is not a lack of good ideas.
“Public-sector reform was rarely constrained by a shortage of good ideas, but more often by the ability to lead change, build trust, bring stakeholders together, overcome resistance and sustain momentum,” he said.
He noted that while governments are pushing ambitious Public Financial Management, PFM reforms to mobilise domestic resources and improve budgeting, progress remains uneven.
“Leadership, coordination and implementation continue to rank among the continent’s major capacity challenges.”
That gap birthed LEAPS — _Leadership Excellence for Africa’s Public Sector_ — a programme run by ACBF’s Ubora Academy with support from the Gates Foundation.
—3 HARD LESSONS FROM LEAPS—
Mr. Adil Ababou, Senior Programme Officer at the Gates Foundation, said working on LEAPS reinforced 3 truths:
1.People lead reforms, not institutions
“Many of the most difficult challenges facing public finance officials were not purely technical, but involved building consensus around difficult reforms, managing resistance, working across institutional boundaries.”
He said with “abrupt aid cuts,” government finance is “now, more than ever, the backbone of sustained and nationally owned development.”
2.Ownership matters
LEAPS was designed not to impose solutions. “It begins by understanding the capacity needs of participating institutions… participants retain responsibility for defining the problems they want to address.”
This, he said, aligns with Africa’s push for sovereignty and defining its own development priorities.
3.Leadership must be collective
“Successful reform requires teams, institutions and networks of officials who are able to work across the administrative silos that often characterise government. That is when individual leadership can start generating institutional momentum.”
—HOW LEAPS WORKS—
The 6-month executive programme goes beyond classroom training. It combines: Self-assessment + personal development plans + executive coaching + peer learning + technical seminars + real PFM case studies
Delivered in English and French, it covers 5 modules: African leadership paradigms, emotional intelligence, high-performing teams, strategic change, and stakeholder engagement.
Since 2024, 295 participants from 8 countries — Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe — have enrolled.
—EARLY RESULTS: FROM TRAINING TO INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE—
Biteye said the first cohort is already changing how institutions work:
-Kenya: People-centred leadership advanced digital PFM reforms and secured stakeholder buy-in
-Senegal: Stronger delegation and participatory management. Budget information made more accessible to citizens .
-Ghana: Coaching improved accountability and collaboration between finance and audit institutions
-Zimbabwe: Reflective, empathetic leadership helped officials navigate reforms under tough resource constraints
Nigeria’s Dr. Oluwole Olutola, Deputy Director, Budget Office of the Federation, said LEAPS changed his view:
“It is no longer about position. It is no longer about title. It is about collective decision and collective responsibility.”
Others shared similar shifts:
Ana Awotwe Bosumafi, Ghana Audit Service: “I realised I still had considerable room for leadership growth.”
Priscilla Maina, Kenya Auditor General’s Office:
“LEAPS helped me overcome my tendency to do everything myself and learn to trust others.”
An external evaluation of the programme is currently ongoing.
—WHAT’S NEXT: SCALE, INSTITUTIONALISE, SUSTAIN—
The webinar also launched two things:
1.The LEAPS Change Story— documenting leadership journeys and institutional outcomes across 3 cohorts
2.The LEAPS Executive Leadership Programme* — an expanded version open to public-sector and regional-body professionals across Africa, with an ACBF certificate
Biteye outlined 3 priorities: institutionalise leadership development, move from individual to institutional transformation, and sustain what works.
“LEAPS graduates should become mentors, reform champions and catalysts for wider changes in institutional culture,” he said.
Ababou added: “We must ensure that the gains made by individual participants are embedded in teams and institutions.”
ACBF, an AU specialised agency established in 1991, has worked in 50+ African countries.
Through LEAPS, it wants to build “a pipeline of African public-sector leaders who are technically competent, ethically grounded, collaborative and capable of leading change.”
