A sombre reflection on the quiet cost of disrupted institutional memory across African state-owned enterprises
Institutional memory is the invisible architecture of nation-building. It binds the past to the future through the bridge of the present.
In Africa, however, this bridge is often dismantled every four to five years. When new leaders ascend to positions of public trust, they often bring not only a vision for change but a tendency to erase what came before.
The continent is paying a quiet but heavy price for the absence of structured handovers and continuity frameworks, especially within its most strategic institutions.
Legacy Lost in Transition
In countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, leadership transitions within key state-owned entities often occur without formal handover notes, structured exit briefings, or succession plans. These are not isolated cases; they are systemic.
The Ghana Cocoa Board, once a model of crop governance on the continent, has undergone overlapping reforms under successive administrations. Yet little consolidation.
The Komenda Sugar Factory, a high-profile, capital-intensive investment, remains virtually idle. Leadership resets and policy U-turns continue to stall its operationalisation.
South Africa’s Eskom is another well-documented case. Frequent executive changes have led to inconsistent policy direction and procurement chaos. The result? Blackouts, ballooning debt, and diminished investor confidence.
Nigeria’s NNPC has endured one reform after another, each hailed as a breakthrough, yet consistently failing to confront root inefficiencies. Why? Because no leadership builds upon the technical decisions of the former.
Institutional Memory: The Foundation of Continuity
Institutional memory is not nostalgia. It is a strategic resource. In mature systems, it enables organisations to avoid repeating past mistakes, implement reforms consistently, and maintain momentum across leadership cycles.
Africa’s development ambitions make continuity even more crucial. Infrastructure investments, industrialisation drives, and sovereign wealth planning require a 20–30 year horizon. But many African institutions are politicised battlegrounds. Appointments are used as personal rewards, not public trust. Governance becomes a race without a baton and, too often, a race backwards.
Corruption, Pride, and the Price of Disruption
Yes, corruption must be tackled. But fighting corruption does not mean erasing all that came before. In Africa, the anticorruption rhetoric is often used as a convenient broom, sweeping away experience, records, and institutional wisdom. Unfortunately, it sometimes hides pride and a political vendetta, rather than genuine reform.
In Ghana’s SSNIT, forensic audits have become routine, yet few reforms survive leadership changes. In Nigeria, oil-sector reform continues to stall due to abrupt appointments and politicisation.
At South Africa’s Eskom, over 10 CEOs have come and gone in 15 years. Each one begins anew. Each one inherits a broken baton. This isn’t cleansing. It’s cyclical corrosion. Reform, when not based on legacy, becomes revenge with a new face.
The Case for Continuity Legislation
Africa must begin to legislate structured handovers. It is no longer enough to hope for stability; it must be mandated. Transition notes, continuity audits, and formal successor briefings should be institutionalised.
Singapore offers a model where state-owned investment companies operate under long-term plans, immune to ministerial reshuffles and changes in government. In Rwanda, boards such as the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) operate under performance-based continuity mandates.
Continuity is not resistance to reform. It is the foundation for effective reform. Plans that endure across administrations build trust with citizens, civil servants, and investors.
Quantifying the Cost: Billions Lost to Institutional Instability
The financial burden of disrupted governance is staggering. According to the African Development Bank, over $50 billion worth of infrastructure projects across Africa have been stalled or abandoned due to political transitions and regime changes.
In Ghana, successive governments have left critical roads, hospitals, and energy projects incomplete, resulting in taxpayers incurring over $2.3 billion in sunk costs between 2012 and 2022. In Nigeria, PwC estimates that over ₦1.5 trillion (approximately $3.5 billion USD) is lost annually due to inefficiencies and duplications resulting from public sector leadership turnover.
The NNPC’s restructuring cycles have discouraged investor confidence and delayed vital industry reforms. South Africa’s Eskom recorded a R20.5 billion loss (approximately $1.2 billion USD) in 2019, largely due to poor procurement practices and executive turnover. These are not just financial losses. They are hospitals that remain unopened, classrooms that remain unbuilt, and futures that are deferred.
The High Price of Institutional Amnesia: More Real-World Examples
Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), launched in 2017, was envisioned as a transformative national asset. However, without coordinated freight policies or proper transition frameworks, it quickly encountered operational and financial challenges.
With shifting ministerial oversight and ineffective cargo rerouting strategies, the SGR now operates at a loss exceeding $200 million annually, a testament to disrupted planning.
In Malawi, the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) has faced chronic dysfunction due to abrupt leadership changes.
Grain procurement and subsidy programs are inconsistently implemented, audited, and abandoned. Despite multiple reform attempts, the organisation struggles to guarantee food security, proving that governance must outlive appointees to deliver value.
Cultural Shift: From Possession to Custodianship
Africa’s transformation is not just a policy problem. It is a mindset issue. Leaders must begin to see their positions as custodianship, not conquest. Titles are transient. Legacies are eternal.
When directors and ministers behave like monarchs, not mentors, institutions bleed. Governance becomes a revolving door of ego. The “I came to change everything” syndrome must be replaced by “I came to strengthen what works and fix what doesn’t.”
Invisible leadership, the kind that builds quietly, refines gracefully, and finishes what others started, must become Africa’s new standard. Ego builds monuments. Humility builds nations.
A Role for the African Union
The African Union has a critical role to play in promoting a culture of continuity. As part of Agenda 2063, the AU should encourage and codify mandatory handover frameworks across public institutions and SOEs.
A Continental Charter on Institutional Continuity can set standards for member states, backed by peer review systems and incentive-based compliance.
Just as the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) assesses democracy and governance, a new stream could track how transitions are managed in strategic institutions. We need a continental consensus: institutional memory is not an accessory to governance. It is a necessity.
Parable of the Bridge Builder
In African folklore, there is the tale of the old man who spent his final years building a bridge he would never cross. When asked why, he replied: “So my grandchildren will not drown when the floods return.” Too often, leaders in Africa dismantle bridges mid-construction to etch their names on new stones.
But true leadership is not about being first or being loud; it is about being faithful to the process of nation-building, even when the fruits are harvested by others. You do not build history with hammers of ego. You build it with bricks of humility.
Conclusion: A clarion call for generational governance
The inconvenient truth is this: Africa is not just short on funding. It is short on continuity. One government builds, the next demolishes. One director plants, the next uproots. And so the continent remains in a perpetual state of beginning. Progress becomes an illusion repackaged every election cycle.
True leadership is not defined by charisma or slogans. It is defined by the courage to continue the good and legitimate things others started and the discipline to finish what matters. Governance is not a power trip.
It is a generational commitment. If we continue to erase, restart, and politicise, Africa will keep writing draft versions of her destiny, never the final manuscript. We must enshrine wisdom into the fabric of our institutions. Preserve it beyond egos.
Document it beyond applause. Honour it beyond tenure. For when leadership changes hands, let wisdom remain standing.
Fellow Africans and Pan-Africanists, the inconvenient truth is this: the future will not remember our promises. It will remember only the structures we left behind or the ruins our negligence engraved into history.
