On 10 September 2024, CABRI hosted the second webinar of the two-part series of the Enhancing Digital Public Financial Management (PFM) in Africa programme. The webinar presented preliminary findings from Benin, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa exploring each country’ journey in transforming digital systems and how the functionality of PFM systems improved for each.

Giselle Hadley, Programme Manager at CABRI and Nicolas Botton, Digital PFM Expert, scanned through the various managerial challenges that countries faced when various departments would either digitize or digitalise their PFM systems. The discussion further examined how these challenges were overcome, and how emerging technologies were used in their digital transformation journeys.

Based on the research, three cross-cutting themes emerged to determine what support Benin, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa need. In brief - to embrace the modular or incremental approach; move beyond the Ministry of Finance; and learn from other country experiences or standards.

This two-part series marks the end of Phase 1 of the Enhancing Digital PFM in Africa programme. Phase 2 will have CABRI solicit country-specific themes which seek to improve learning and knowledge sharing in digital PFM reforms in Africa. Feedback from both webinars will be tested and shape CABRI’s future work.