The 3rd API PFM Virtual Conference – Shaping The Future of Public Finance in Africa

The African Professionalisation Initiative (API) hosted its 3rd Virtual Public Financial Management (PFM) Conference on 22 and 23 September 2025, bringing together more than 150 delegates from across Africa. Participants included Auditors General, accountants-general, professional accountancy bodies, and finance directors, all united by one goal — to shape Africa’s financial future through data, ethics, and digital innovation.

Setting the Tone: Professionalisation, Ethics, and Reform Readiness

The conference opened with a keynote that challenged a bold idea: “What if the greatest threat to ethics in public finance isn’t corruption — but competence?” Professor Rashied Small (API Academic Advisory Committee) and Lee White, CEO of IFAC, called for stronger professionalisation as the foundation of ethical and digital-ready PFM systems. Their message: African governments need finance professionals who combine technical skill, moral courage, and digital literacy.

Panel 1: PFM in the Age of Automation and AI

Moderated by Ruth Doreen Mutebe, this session asked the big question: “If AI replaced 60% of PFM tasks, what human traits would become most valuable?” Auditors General from Liberia, Lesotho, and Namibia, together with Dr Nelson Maseko (Zimbabwe), explored how automation can free professionals to focus on ethics, creativity, and trust-building. They agreed that Africa’s public finance systems should use technology to empower citizens, not just improve efficiency.

Panel 2: Strategic Budgeting & Fiscal Agility

Led by Tlamelo Kelebeile (BICA), this session turned budgets from spreadsheets into citizens’ contracts.
Speakers Olivia Abiatal (PAAB Namibia), and Richard Ndebele (CGAIZ) discussed how digital tools and participatory budgeting can make governments more responsive. They asked, “What if citizens controlled 20% of the national budget?” The takeaway: true fiscal agility means giving people a real voice in how resources are used.

Panel 3: Elevating Public Sector Accounting with IPSAS

Moderated by Reuben Orwaru (PAFA), this panel reframed IPSAS not as a compliance checklist but as a trust-building tool. Speakers Papin Daniels (LICPA Liberia), and Georgina Muchai (PSASB Kenya) asked: “What if IPSAS reports included trust metrics — would it change what we measure?” They called for reports that tell clear stories about how public money changes lives, not just balance sheets.

Panel 4: Audit Agility & Integrity in the Data Age

Chaired by Philip Rakgwale (SAIGA), this session reimagined audit institutions as early-warning systems, not just post-event watchdogs. Auditors General from Botswana (Keneilwe Senyarelo), Zimbabwe (Rheah Kujinga), together with experts from AFROSAI-E (Josephine Mukomba) and ICPAZ CEO (Tendai Tichagwa), debated how predictive analytics can prevent failure before it happens. One delegate summarized it perfectly: “Audits should stop disasters, not describe them.”

Panel 5: Sustainability Reporting & PFM’s Role in Climate Resilience

The final session, chaired by Acc Gen Likhapha Mahase (Lesotho), reminded participants that accountability must also protect the planet. Dr FCPA Jona Wala (Acc Gen Kenya & IPSASB), and Donald Mangenje (PAAB Secretary, Zimbabwe) showed how sustainability reporting can turn finance into a climate-resilience tool.
They urged African governments to treat sustainability not as a donor demand but as an African survival strategy.

“Technology gives us speed. Standards give us trust. Sustainability gives us a future.” – was rightly stated by Dr Olayinka Moses , the President of the African Accounting and Finance Association in wrapping up the sessions summary.

Day Two: The Hands-On PFM Data Automation Lab

Day Two moved from talk to action. Under the theme “From Manual to Magical,” facilitator Simon Mwachi guided participants through live demonstrations using Power Query, PivotTables, and interactive dashboards. Delegates learned to clean messy data, connect multiple Excel files, and build visual dashboards to track budget execution and audit risks. As one participant noted, “Automation isn’t the end of our role — it’s the rebirth of how we add value.”

This session previewed the official launch of the upcoming API PFM Data Analytics & Automation Certificate, showing how data literacy is becoming the new core skill for Africa’s finance professionals.

What’s Next

Building on this momentum, API announced its next major event – the API PFM Visionary Summit, to be held 23–27 March 2026 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Hybrid (in-person – USD 650 and Virtual – USD 199) summit will go deeper into AI in PFM, ethical governance, sustainability, and professionalisation, providing hands-on learning and networking opportunities for the continent’s finance leaders.

The Big Picture

The 3rd API PFM Virtual Conference proved that the future of public finance in Africa depends not only on technology, but on ethical, competent, and connected professionals. By combining automation with accountability, and data with integrity, API is helping Africa’s public sector become future-ready and citizen-focused.

“Africa’s accountants and auditors are not waiting for the future — they are building it, one innovation at a time.”

About The API

The African Professionalisation Initiative is an independent non-profit organisation whose primary objective is to strengthen the capacity and knowledge base of accounting and auditing professionals in the African public sector to enhance accounting and auditing service delivery to the citizens of Africa. The API is neither a Certified Public Accountancy Institute nor a Chartered Accountancy Institute. API is therefore not a PAO. API’s success catalyses strengthening of the accountancy profession at the national level through the Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA) at the continental level, and with the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) on the global scene.

Our Vision: An African public sector sustainably capacitated with competent, ethical and influential professionals who support accountability, transparency and good financial governance. Our Mission: Grow the capacity of public sector finance management professionals in the African public sector through high quality, relevant and future fit learning programmes.

The API Partner Organisations

The African Professionalisation Initiative is a partnership between the accountancy profession (represented by the Pan African Federation of Accountants (“PAFA”)), Accountants General or their equivalent (African Association of Accountants General – “AAAG”)), and supreme audit institutions or courts of auditors (represented by the English (“AFROSAI-E”) and French (“CREFIAF”) language sub-groups of the African Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (“AFROSAI”)).

Call To Action

Africa doesn’t lack wealth – it lacks effective wealth stewardship. API professionalisation fills that gap, one skilled public sector accountant at a time. You are not too junior to lead – Register today! Please choose below the service that works for you and drop us a mail – info@professionalisation.africa. Visit our website and join the API Programmes to capture exponential value:

• PFM Summit – Bi-Annual, Joburg SA
• Data Analytics & Automation – Virtual, Inhouse, In Selected African Cities
• Short courses and Micro Credentials – IPSAS, Ethics, Sustainability Reporting etc
• Professionalisation Workshops – In-person in Pretoria
• Non-Finance Managers Superpower Skills – Virtual & In Various African Cities
• PFM Consulting – As Advisers (Work for API) and Clients (Get value and discounts)
• Executive CPD Masterclasses – Free and live with experts redefining African PFM
• Future Ready Africa – Stay abreast with public sector destiny shaping trends