The service delivery deficit: Why Africa needs smarter PFM, stronger ESG, and applied AI

BY RICHARD NDEBELE

Across Africa, citizens continue to face the same frustrating reality, broken road networks, erratic water supplies, underfunded health systems, and unreliable electricity.

The paradox is glaring.

Despite vast natural resources, tax revenues in some states, and billions in international support, the continent still struggles to deliver basic public goods.

According to the African Development Bank, Africa loses up to 25% of its infrastructure investment value due to inefficiencies, corruption, and poor maintenance.

The service delivery deficit is not the result of fate or scarcity, but of governance and accountability gaps.

The question is no longer whether Africa has the resources, but whether it can manage them effectively. Closing this gap requires a fundamental shift, towards smarter public financial management (PFM), stronger environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, and the applied use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Smarter PFM begins with rethinking the way governments budget and spend.

Budgets are the most powerful tool a state has for turning resources into services, yet too often they remain disconnected from citizen priorities and service outcomes.

In countries like Uganda, the shift to programme-based budgeting has made it possible to track whether money spent translates into classrooms built or kilometers of road paved.

Kenya has gone further by publishing citizen budget guide, simplified documents that allow taxpayers to follow how money is allocated and spent, empowering communities to hold leaders accountable.

South Africa has institutionalised mid-year budget reviews, allowing governments to adjust allocations in response to economic shocks, thereby protecting critical services.

These practices show that when budgets are transparent, simplified, and updated frequently, they become instruments of accountability rather than just financial blueprints.

For Zimbabwe and other African nations, adopting real-time budget portals and expanding participatory budgeting at local authority level could directly tie resource use to citizen priorities and outcomes.

Another practical innovation is the use of performance dashboards to monitor service delivery in real time. Countries such as Kenya and Nigeria have experimented with digital dashboards that display key indicators such as school completion rates, hospital drug stock levels, road maintenance progress, and water supply coverage. These dashboards link financial allocations to service delivery results, bridging the accountability gap.

When made public, they empower citizens to see whether budget promises are translating into outcomes, while simultaneously giving policymakers the tools to track performance proactively.

In Zimbabwe, government ministries and local authorities could adopt AI-enhanced dashboards to track revenue collection, procurement contracts, and service delivery indicators like non-revenue water losses or clinic drug availability.

By integrating dashboards into cabinet briefings, parliamentary oversight, and municipal council meetings, governments can shift from reactive explanations to proactive management.

Stakeholder management is equally central to governance. Citizens, civil society, development partners, and the private sector are all players in the delivery chain, yet their voices are often ignored. Tanzania’s commitment to the

Open Government Partnership has shown how structured engagement can improve accountability, particularly in education and healthcare.

Frameworks such as Mendelow’s stakeholder model help governments identify which groups have the power and interest to shape outcomes, ensuring that no one is left behind. This shift transforms citizens from passive recipients into active participants in service design and delivery.

At the same time, no government can fund all of its infrastructure needs alone.

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become indispensable. When properly governed, PPPs leverage private capital for public good. Kenya’s Nairobi Expressway is a striking example—built without overburdening the budget, financed through user fees. Senegal’s Dakar-Diamniadio toll highway has improved connectivity and reduced travel times, proving that transparent PPPs deliver lasting value.

Zimbabwe’s Plumtree–Mutare highway, meanwhile, illustrates both the opportunities and risks of PPPs, highlighting the importance of risk-sharing, governance, and financial viability in ensuring sustainability.

The World Bank estimates that Africa requires an additional US$68bn annually in infrastructure investment, a gap that cannot be bridged without well-structured PPPs.

To succeed, governments must strengthen frameworks with independent oversight, standardised contracts, and explicit links between project outputs and service delivery improvements.

But service delivery is not only about financial flows and contracts; it is also about resilience and sustainability. Weak ESG practices in public institutions often undermine progress. South Africa’s Eskom crisis demonstrates how governance failures in state-owned enterprises can cripple entire economies, with rolling blackouts estimated to cost the country US$ 50m per day. Conversely, Lagos State’s climate adaptation investments in flood control and waste management have safeguarded urban services in one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities.

Embedding ESG principles into public service delivery—through annual ESG reports, climate-resilient infrastructure, and ESG-linked performance contracts—ensures that services are not only delivered but sustained. Local authorities could, for example, track water losses, carbon emissions, or gender inclusivity as part of their accountability indicators.

The third lever is technology. Africa’s capacity gaps are too wide to close with manual systems alone, and applied AI offers practical solutions.

In South Africa, the revenue authority uses AI to detect tax fraud, plugging leakages and boosting revenues for services. Sierra Leone’s AI-powered disease surveillance helped predict Ebola flare-ups, strengthening health security. Kenya’s Huduma Centres have digitised over 50 government services, reducing bureaucracy and improving citizen satisfaction.

For Zimbabwe, AI could be a game-changer in areas where inefficiencies have long drained resources. ZIMRA could deploy AI tools to analyse customs and mining revenue data, flagging anomalies and reducing smuggling-related leakages.

This is critical in a country where illicit financial flows are estimated to cost over US$1bn annually, particularly in the extractives sector.

Municipalities could use smart sensors to detect and repair water leaks, cutting down on non-revenue water losses that currently exceed 40% in Harare.

Hospitals could integrate AI-driven inventory management to prevent drug shortages, while AI-powered chatbots could help local authorities handle citizen complaints more efficiently.

Even in agriculture, which underpins Zimbabwe’s economy, AI models could forecast droughts, guide irrigation, and provide farmers with timely advice, thereby safeguarding food security.

These are not futuristic possibilities but readily available technologies that can be adapted to Zimbabwe’s context with the right political will and investment.

Africa’s service delivery deficit is not inevitable—it is a choice.

A choice to continue with outdated financial practices, weak governance standards, and underutilised technology.

Or a choice to embrace smarter PFM that ties every tax dollar to measurable outcomes, stronger ESG that builds resilience and trust, and applied AI that allows governments to leapfrog capacity gaps.

Citizens do not need more policy statements; they need working hospitals, clean water, reliable energy, and safe roads.

The tools and models are already available within the continent, from Rwanda’s digitised IFMIS to Kenya’s Huduma Centres, Senegal’s PPP highways to Lagos’s climate-resilient infrastructure.

For Zimbabwe, the path is clear: harness AI alongside smarter PFM, ESG, and performance dashboards to ensure resources translate into tangible services.

The challenge is not invention—it is scaling what works.

If Africa can align smarter PFM with stronger ESG and applied AI, it can turn the service delivery deficit into a service delivery dividend.

The continent’s greatest resource is not its minerals or land, but its people.

Delivering reliable, sustainable, and inclusive public services is the surest path to unlocking Africa’s full potential.

Richard Ndebele FCG, RPAcc, MBA, is the Manager: Technical, Research and Quality Assurance at Chartered Governance and Accountancy Institute in Zimbabwe and the PAFA Sustainability Centre of Excellence’s Country Champion. He can be contacted on rndebele@cgizim.org