With its second cohort, LEAD is steering African public leadership towards execution
Rabat, 27 August 2026 – From 28 to 30 August 2026, LEAD, the Africa CEO Forum’s pan-African leadership initiative for senior public decision-makers, will convene its second cohort at UM6P Rabat Campus. Held under the theme “Policy Forward – Powering Africa’s Transformation”, the retreat will bring together 35 LEAD fellows from 23 African countries for three days of high-level peer exchange, policy dialogue and leadership development. Their discussions will focus on the reforms that will shape Africa’s next decade: modernising public institutions, financing public action, advancing agricultural transformation and deploying trusted Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). One year after its launch, LEAD is entering a new phase in its long-term ambition: building a pan-African community of public leaders able to turn policy ambition into institutional delivery, and to make excellence in public governance a central lever of the continent’s transformation.
A second cohort of public leaders committed to delivery
The second cohort of LEAD comprises 35 senior public decision-makers from 23 African countries. Selected for their capacity to design, arbitrate and implement reforms within their respective administrations, the fellows represent a new generation of Africa’s administrative leadership.
Their responsibilities span the policy areas that will shape the continent’s future: sovereign debt management, public investment, digital identity, health, education, agriculture and financial inclusion. Together, they reflect the diversity of institutions, experiences and policy priorities that must be mobilised to strengthen public action across Africa.
Over three days, participants will take part in collaborative working sessions, peer-to-peer exchanges and closed-door conversations with public policy leaders, business executives and academic figures. The objective is to share experience, test ideas and build common responses to the governance challenges that affect the continent’s capacity to deliver effective public services and sustain inclusive growth.
Speakers will include H.E Mehdi Jomaa, former Head of Government of Tunisia, Dr. Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, Founder & President of Human Capital Africa and former Vice-President of the World Bank’s Africa Region, Serge Ekué, President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), Mauricio Cardenas, former Finance Minister of Colombia. They will share their experience of reform, the policy trade-offs they have navigated and their perspectives on Africa’s strategic priorities.
The programme is supported by a coalition of academic, institutional, financial and advisory partners that have chosen to invest in the transformation of African public action: University Mohammed VI Polytechnic, the African Development Bank (AfDB), BOAD, Africa Re, the Arise Foundation, BCG, Asafo & Co and the Trade and Development Bank (TDB).
Digital public infrastructure at the heart of the agenda
Digital Public Infrastructure remains a central thread of LEAD’s work. The second cohort will examine how African governments can design and scale shared, open and resilient digital systems that improve public-service delivery, support local innovation and protect the rights of citizens.
Discussions will address issues at the core of digital sovereignty and state capability: digital identity, interoperable payments, secure data exchange, trusted governance frameworks, interoperability and citizen protection.
The fellows will also explore how artificial intelligence can be applied responsibly within public administrations to strengthen decision-making, improve service delivery and support more responsive institutions. In line with LEAD’s conviction, the objective is to help the continent move from a logic of technology consumption to one of value creation, institutional capability and locally anchored innovation.
LEAD, a pan-African community advancing public-sector transformation
Created by the Africa CEO Forum, LEAD is a leadership programme for senior African public decision-makers. Its ambition is to reposition Africa’s administrative leaders as a driver of reform, performance and dialogue with all the continent’s stakeholders.
More than a leadership programme, LEAD is designed as a long-term community of practice. It enables public leaders to share experiences, compare institutional approaches and develop common responses to the economic, technological and governance transformations reshaping Africa.
The LEAD community is structured around three pillars: modernising the state, improving public services and strengthening cooperation between governments, development institutions and private-sector actors.
Each new class strengthens the LEAD alumni community, which aims over time to bring together several hundred African public decision-makers around a shared culture of transparency, performance, innovation and regional cooperation.
Africa CEO Forum
“Africa’s transformation will depend on its next generation of influential public leaders, who are already shaping public policy and who can learn from one another, build trusted networks across borders and turn strong ideas into collective action. LEAD exists to bring this generation together. By exposing fellows to the most relevant public-policy experiences from the Global South, we help turn individual ambition into the capacity to deliver at scale. With its second cohort, LEAD is strengthening a pan-African community of young public leaders united by a shared ambition: to raise the standards of governance and accelerate delivery on the issues that will shape Africa’s future — from digital public infrastructure to artificial intelligence.” – Amir Ben Yahmed, CEO of Africa CEO Forum
University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P)
« Transformation is not only about defining the right policies, but about building the capacity to deliver them. Through research, data and digital infrastructure, UM6P is committed to strengthening that capacity and supporting the leaders who turn policy ambition into impact. »
African Development Bank (AfDB)
“The African Development Bank Group (the Bank Group) is proud to be supporting of LEAD’s Second Edition. We both share a fundamental conviction: Africa’s transformation requires leaders with the capacity to turn ambition into policy; policy into action, and action into investments and results our people can see and experience. Our support for LEAD is therefore an investment in the people and institutions that will shape Africa’s transformation. This resonates with our commitment to turn Africa’s demography into a dividend, because the continent’s greatest asset is its people. Investing in Africa’s young people – in their skills, enterprises, leadership, and capacity to innovate – is an investment in the continent’s economic future. Additionally, this year’s focus on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is timely. DPI is foundational for enabling citizens – especially young people – to acquire knowledge, access services, innovate, build enterprises, and participate meaningfully in the formal economy. For the Bank Group, investing in leadership, young people and digital infrastructure belong in the mission of building a more self-reliant, prosperous, confident, and globally competitive Africa.”
Africa Re
“For 50 years, Africa Re has advanced its mission to strengthen Africa’s macroeconomic resilience by Africans and for Africa. Partnering with LEAD helps position insurance as a core pillar of the economic development agenda for the public sector leaders shaping the continent’s future.”
West African Development Bank (BOAD)
“Financing infrastructure and strategic investments has always been central to BOAD’s mission across the region. However, long-term economic growth is fundamentally driven by visionary leadership. Supporting Jeune Afrique’s LEAD initiative is a seamless evolution of our 53-year legacy: transitioning from funding the region’s infrastructure to empowering the human capital that will lead it. We are proud to back and encourage these emerging African leaders as they shape the continent’s trajectory.”
BCG
“We believe Africa’s transformation starts with strong leadership and good governance. Partnering with LEAD is an opportunity to support young African leaders shaping that future.”
Asafo & Co
“We are delighted to continue our commitment to LEAD as an Associate Partner for its second edition. As an Africa-focused international law firm combining global standards of excellence with deep on-the-ground presence across Africa, we see first-hand the increasingly complex demands placed on Africa’s public institutions. LEAD’s ambition to equip the continent’s next generation of public leaders with the vision and the tools to drive transformation is one we share deeply, and is rooted in the same conviction on which we built Asafo & Co.”
About LEAD
LEAD is an Africa CEO Forum initiative dedicated to Africa’s senior public decision-makers. Each year, a new cohort of fellows joins the LEAD alumni community, with the long-term objective of uniting several hundred African public decision-makers around a shared culture of transparency, performance and regional cooperation.
