BY NATHAN GUMA
THE African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) says artificial intelligence (AI) could play a defining role in transforming how African governments manage public resources, enhance accountability and strengthen forecasting capacity within public finance systems.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch second cohort of the Leadership Excellence in Africa’s Public Sector (LEAPS) Programme held in Harare, Programs Officer, Economic and Social Governance Mohamed Salat Osman said that they have been teaching Zimbabwe’s public officers importance of AI in public finance management.
The LEAPS is a six-month leadership development journey, tailored to Africa’s unique context, covers essential topics such as self-leadership, team dynamics, organizational strategies and public financial management ecosystem.
Fifteen senior officials from Zimbabwe’s public financial management institutions graduated for the first cohort of the program.
Salat said that one of the Foundation’s key interventions under the Leadership Excellence Programme was a technical seminar on public financial management (PFM) and AI, aimed at helping countries assess their digital readiness and identify how emerging technologies can strengthen financial governance.
“We’re seeing a lot of developments in the AI space, with new tools that can streamline and enhance capacities within the public financial management space,” the officer said. “AI can help improve forecasting, accelerate processes that traditionally take long, and improve overall efficiency in how governments manage funds.”
Salat said that as part of efforts to improve the technological aspect of public finance management, they engaged an expert from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international organisation that stimulates world trade.
“The OECD has undertaken a lot of research on the interface of PFM and AI. And they’ve recently even published a report on the use of AI within the public sector that is accessible to all members of the public sector,” Salat said.
How AI can be used for robust systems
Salat said AI provides a lot of opportunities, including having robust forecasting capacities.
“It can be used to ease or like fast track the processes that maybe will have taken quite a long time to be achieved. And it’s important that now for the countries and in this technical seminar, what we focused on was the needs assessment.
“What do we need in terms of using the artificial intelligence or digitalising? What exactly do we need to get? Which services will mainly benefit? What are the current systems that we have in place? and what now can we do to position the country to benefit from the improved computing capacities, the improved artificial intelligence.”
However, he said use of AI in public finance management should be taken from a country to country perspective.
“We may not have one size fits all, but it’s important to know that what do you want as a country? How can we benefit from artificial intelligence? And bringing this together to identify now a In Kenya, recently, they had adopted a policy on the utilization of Artificial Intelligence in the public sector,” he says.
“And in the training with the cohort members, we had shared that policy when it was a draft. Now currently it’s an approved or an adopted policy within the public sector and it gives guidelines on how the various government ministries can utilise AI.
“So it’s also important that to have a public sector wide policy on the utilisation of AI, focusing on the specific areas that we believe is going to be beneficial towards the country.” – IOW Data.
