The Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation and four strategic partners – the Africa CEO Forum, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) have unveiled groundbreaking pan-African initiative aimed at making excellence in public policy the engine for sustainable economic transformation across the African continent.
The initiative responds to an obvious fact: despite nearly two decades of almost uninterrupted growth, Africa continues to suffer from a deficit in public services, which significantly inhibits its economic development and the quality of life of its 1.4 billion inhabitants.
Speaking at the unveiling, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, founder of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, said that the human capital of Africa’s public sector is one of the continent’s most underutilised resources, and training, equipping, and empowering public sector leaders is a vital mission.
He emphasised that through this initiative, we are joining forces to build a high-performing, citizen-focused public service, driven by results.”
Aig-Imoukhuede further stressed that many other economies in the Global South, with comparable GDPs, have undergone impactful transformations during the same period, “demonstrating that well-designed regulatory, fiscal, and logistical choices can bring about major change.”
He added, “This initiative aims to bridge the gap by putting sound economic governance back at the core of Africa’s development agenda.”
He however said, “The initiative’s primary objective will, therefore, be to promote excellence in African public policy among some 50 high-potential young civil servants from across the continent each year, drawing inspiration from concrete examples of global success, such as Brazil, which has created a universal healthcare system while digitising its public services; Indonesia, which has become a global leader in nickel, thanks to a local transformation strategy; and India, which has revolutionised financial inclusion with its Aadhaar digital identity programme,” he said.
The Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation is a pan-African philanthropic organisation dedicated to transforming Africa’s public sector. It envisions a continent where citizens can pursue their aspirations, contribute to their community’s development, and live healthy, productive lives.
Through targeted investments in training senior public officials, public policy improvement, and innovation in service delivery, the foundation partners with African governments and institutions to build more effective, transparent, and impact-driven public administrations.
In conclusion, the initiative will also try to build a pan-African network of young public decision-makers who share a common vision of public service excellence and the ambition to help make big projects, like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), happen in addition to willingness to work together to deal with upcoming demographic, climate, and industrial challenges, making public leadership the main economic infrastructure on the continent, he concluded.”
