Author: admin_poj

Is Africa rising? Or has it iterated rapidly and then stalled because the infrastructure and institutions aren’t good enough to sustain growth? The list of abandoned or mis-managed infrastructure projects is huge – and this has resulted in an understandable pessimism whenever a new project is announced. 

Widespread Pessimism

The comments under a post announcing the Abidjan–Lagos Corridor Highway Project moving into operational phase was a perfect example. Concerns about checkpoints, corruption and security dominate alongside snarky comments about how delayed the project has been and questions about why it isn’t a railroad instead of a motorway. People are simply not optimistic that the project will deliver any improvements to their lives. 

This road will pass through five nations – Cote D’Ivoire; Ghana; Togo; Benin and Nigeria. If drivers have to wait for hours (or even days) at each country border, they won’t use the road. Even at the Africa CEO Forum, where the people at the very top of Governments and private institutions from across the Continent were gathered, there were grumbles about visa issues. 

The Importance of Infrastructure

And here lies the issue. You can’t deliver life-changing infrastructure projects if the underlying infrastructure – whether financing through to policy – is not in place. As Diane Karusisi, CEO of the Bank of Kigali told me emphatically, one assumption she disagrees with is that Africa can bypass the old path for development and leapfrog using new technologies. 

“I don’t think there’s a shortcut to transformation. And I think the risk for us would be that we have access to these emerging technologies, but it doesn’t result into broad based prosperity.” Diane Karusisi, CEO of Bank of Kigali

She shares: “They argue that probably we won’t need or we could be able to avoid massive investments in infrastructure. But I don’t think it’s possible. I don’t think there’s a shortcut to transformation. And I think the risk for us would be that we have access to these emerging technologies, but it doesn’t result into broad based prosperity.”

The Rwandan Model

If we hone in on Rwanda, the infrastructure spend has been strategic and impactful for years. The United Nations Development Fund analysed the 2025-26 budget and described it as “a bold and expansionary fiscal stance” (PDF). The 21% increase from the previous fiscal year “…is more than just a numerical adjustment; it sends a strong policy signal of the government’s commitment to accelerating economic transformation while strengthening resilience against both persistent and emerging socio-economic shocks,” it writes. 

The money is being spent on everything from expansion of irrigation schemes to tax incentives to bolster the Made-In-Rwanda policy. All projects, though, are focused on women and youth-led initiatives; “expanding social protection schemes, investing in rural and hard-to-reach areas, and mainstreaming gender and climate responsiveness across all programmes.” 

“I hope…that if some of the institutional issues get solved or at least partially addressed, we will see an increasing numbers of countries in Africa climbing up that ladder and starting to grow both their income per capita and their living standards.” Professor Antonio Fatas, INSEAD

This is Rwanda doing the work – putting in place the groundworks – education, energy infrastructure, and climate resilience among them – that they can then build upon. As Professor Antonio Fatas from INSEAD told me earlier this year: “If you look at the growth rate of GDPs in Africa last year, it was decent. That’s what I see as a business leader. I see a market that is growing, and it’s going to continue going forward. I hope, though I’m not sure if I can bet on this – that if some of the institutional issues get solved or at least partially addressed, we will see an increasing numbers of countries in Africa climbing up that ladder and starting to grow both their income per capita and their living standards.”

Capability Building at the Core

Transformation, though, starts with people – and specifically, capability building. In our recent chat in Kigali, Diane talked specifically about literacy and how this has been a focus. After all, as she said: “I don’t think you can leapfrog your way to prosperity with people who are not literate”. Then there’s digital literacy as a layer on top of this. Educated and engaged citizens who feel they have some kind of shared ownership in what their country is trying to build are the ones driving growth in Rwanda. It is something the government continues to invest in. 

“I don’t think you can leapfrog your way to prosperity with people who are not literate”. Diane Karusisi, CEO of Bank of Kigali

This is a lesson to every country and business. An education system, like all of the foundations of a society, requires strategic thinking, investment and innovation. That takes time. We hold Rwanda up as an example but we mustn’t ignore the decades of work that have gone in. Rwanda hasn’t leapfrogged, it has worked and worked, and not without set-backs and mistakes. This is why its growth has been sustained and remains sustainable even as geopolitics, climate change and war shakes our world. 

From my conversations in London, Paris and this month, in Kigali as well as the talks at events from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, there has been a topic that keeps coming up. The conversations have been wide-ranging and complex as we tackled what transformation look like (and should look like) at everything from the personal to the global scale.

But the conversations keep returning to people, and specifically capability building. At its core, this is about trust. It’s about finding the right people to come on a journey with you, trusting them to do their part with passion and integrity; but also trusting them to keep honing their growth mindset so that they have the skills they need, even in testing times. It’s also about them trusting you and buying into what you are trying to do. For this, your communications skills need to be meticulous – clarity is everything – but you also need a healthy dose of self-awareness to make sure you are questioning your own decisions.

In this video, I got to the heart of the issue. 

I had never really thought of all transformations as fragile. I know that many fail. As McKinsey reported, 70% of digital transformation initiatives fail to meet their objective. The cost is staggering. The Financial Times shared: “Globally, failed transformation efforts cost businesses an estimated $2.3tn a year.” Despite this, I had held the view that this was because many companies are making the same mistakes – poor execution, lack of a compelling narrative and not viewing a transformation as a continuum of capability building – stopping the work when there is always more work to be done. The transformation itself could be robust if handled differently. 

“Globally, failed transformation efforts cost businesses an estimated $2.3tn a year.”

It was my conversation with Ambroise Depouilly, Managing Partner (CEO) of Deloitte Francophone Africa, which added a new and valuable perspective. He spoke of transformations as fragile. Speaking from his own experience, he shared: “A big transformation project can fail just by one person not being engaged or being against the project. I think that the role of an external advisor is constantly seeking for weak signals and being prepared to take courageous decisions when it’s needed.”  I have seen this myself. 

Being human

This stance is so powerful because it almost imbues a transformation with human qualities, which you must then be mindful of. After all, there is more at play than data and KPIs. There are also human emotions, including fear, empathy, excitement, nervousness and anger sometimes. Being aware of this means you will be more sensitive to these signals that Ambroise talked about and therefore can act before something breaks. 

“If you have the mindset that recognises that transformation is fragile, even when it’s going well, you are aware that things can quickly switch. It just keeps you engaged.”

Ambroise admits he learnt the hard way. He told me: “I recall a very large project. It was a multi-year and multi-million dollar project. There was just one person who wasn’t on board. When this person left the project, all of a sudden the project changed. It was just one person, and I wondered afterwards why I didn’t identify this. I was quite young and I didn’t realise that a project is fragile.” This mindset shift means that he is now acutely aware of the details, including how colleagues are engaging. “If you have the mindset that recognises that transformation is fragile, even when it’s going well, you are aware that things can quickly switch. It just keeps you engaged.”

Listen, listen and listen again

As well as changing mindset, he also realised that you have to listen. Author Travis Bradberry wrote a brilliant post a few months ago about how words reveal your EQ “in an instant”. He shared phrases that exemplify just this, stating: “Most people think emotional intelligence is about what you feel. It’s not. It’s about what you say when it matters most. Pressure. Conflict. Mistakes. Feedback. These are 

the moments that define how people experience you. And in those moments, most people default to instinct. High performers don’t. They use language that creates clarity instead of tension…ownership instead of defensiveness…and trust instead of distance.”

Silence is golden

But I would add silence to this list. Sometimes, you need to say nothing at all. This is right from that first meeting with a client to find out what they need from the transformation. That’s how you discover what the drivers are and what’s at stake. You then use this information to build the team and shape the project. As Ambroise told me: “That is how to make sure you find the right people – the right expertise with the right communication skills.” And keep listening – to views, to ideas and to concerns. 

“If you listen first, you can then apply your skills where they are needed as opposed to trying to enforce your framework and views in an ever-changing scenario.”

“When you start your career as a young expert, you come with your methodology, with your science, and you try to apply it. But then, time after time, you realise that every transformation is so different,” he added. If you listen first, you can then apply your skills where they are needed as opposed to trying to enforce your framework and views in an ever-changing scenario.  

From fragile to resilient

When the team is no longer coming to you, then the transformation has become resilient enough for you to step back. As Ambroise explained, the ultimate goal for the external advisor is that everything you have put into place is working – the chassis is sturdy, the drivers know the route, the passengers are happy and the transformation is moving steadily forward on its own. At this point, you hope too that it is no longer fragile but sturdy enough to not break down even if the road becomes bumpy. This will only happen if you have listened to every stakeholder along the way, including your own intuition.  

I don’t deny that there will be some factors that are beyond your control; but this conversation confirmed to me that good, clear, concise and emotionally-intelligent communication is absolutely essential in all business interaction, but especially during the pressure of a transformation. It won’t stop blocks appearing in the road, but it might mean you can swerve them and not end up like the thousands of ventures smouldering and crumpled in the lay-by.