By: Gloria Anderson and Eric Crentsil.
The final day of the 3rd African Association of Accountants General Conference has highlighted a decisive call for African governments to embrace technology-driven financial reporting as a pathway to deeper fiscal transparency and long-term economic stability.
Under the theme “Africa of Tomorrow: Positioning PFM for Economic Prosperity,” experts reiterated that accountability in public finance must evolve in tandem with technological advancement.
Speaking at the conference in Accra, Director of Public Financial Management at CIPFA-UK, Mr. Iain Murray, stressed that technology is redefining how governments track taxation, spending, and the real impact of fiscal decisions on citizens. He noted that while many countries often “forget the citizen” in public financial debates, modern tools offer an opportunity to reconnect financial reporting with the lived realities of the people it is meant to serve.
Mr. Murray identified real-time, standardized data as one of the most urgent needs in Africa’s public sector, explaining that integrated datasets can transform how policymakers and civil servants interpret financial information.
Dashboards, he said, give leaders clearer insights into how funds are allocated and what outcomes they produce, insights that historically have been fragmented or delayed.
He also highlighted rising interest in block chain for public sector reporting, describing it as a promising technology for ensuring traceability and strengthening public confidence, though not a “silver bullet.”
According to him, block chain’s transparency features could support cleaner reporting practices, but governments must approach it cautiously and responsibly.
Artificial intelligence (AI) also featured prominently in his remarks. Mr. Murray warned that while AI can enhance analysis and help financial managers make sense of complex datasets, it must be used with strict safeguards. He raised concerns about data privacy, ethical use, and the danger of relying on AI-generated information without human judgment. “Once you put something into an AI system, you can’t take it back,” he cautioned, urging African institutions to develop workplace AI governance policies before adopting the tools broadly.
Beyond technology, Mr. Murray spoke about the need for public finance professionals to strengthen their communication skills to make financial information more accessible to citizens. He challenged accountants and PFM practitioners to find innovative ways, possibly even through social media, to explain how taxation and expenditure choices shape national development. “If citizens cannot understand the financial information we produce, then the effort is wasted,” he said.
He emphasized that the future of public financial management demands more than technical competence; it requires relational skills, ethical commitment, and the courage to uphold integrity in the face of difficult decisions. Professionals, he argued, must be “champions of transparency” who engage communities, support climate-responsive budgeting, navigate the rise of digital currencies, and model the values needed to build trust in government.
As the three-day conference concluded, his message echoed a broader sentiment shared by experts across the continent: that Africa’s economic prosperity hinges not only on the systems governments build, but on the trust they are able to cultivate and technology, when used wisely, is key to that journey.
