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LeadAfrik
Intermediate · Self-paced2026 Edition

Public Budgeting & Financial Management

How public money is planned, appropriated, spent, and accounted for. The budget cycle, classification, programme budgeting, execution and cash management, fiscal transparency, and the public-investment management that decides whether money becomes infrastructure.

8

Modules

~6h 20m

Reading time

Intermediate

Level

Self-paced

Format

§

Syllabus

  1. 01

    What a budget is for

    The three PFM objectives — aggregate fiscal discipline, allocative efficiency, operational efficiency — and the tensions between them.

    ~40 minModule 01
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  2. 02

    The budget cycle

    Formulation, approval, execution, and audit; the MTEF, the budget calendar, and where the leverage points actually sit.

    ~50 minModule 02
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  3. 03

    Classification and the chart of accounts

    Economic, functional, and programme classification, GFS standards, and why structure determines what analysis is even possible.

    ~45 minModule 03
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  4. 04

    Programme and performance budgeting

    Outputs vs outcomes, the appeal of performance budgeting, and its limits where measurement capacity is thin.

    ~50 minModule 04
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  5. 05

    Budget execution and cash management

    Commitment controls, pending bills and arrears, the Treasury Single Account, and IFMIS as plumbing and as control.

    ~50 minModule 05
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  6. 06

    Fiscal transparency and the open budget

    The Open Budget Index, citizen budgets, and the role of a Parliamentary Budget Office in real oversight.

    ~45 minModule 06
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  7. 07

    Intergovernmental finance and devolution

    The equitable share, conditional grants, own-source revenue, and the county PFM problem after Kenya's 2010 devolution.

    ~50 minModule 07
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  8. 08

    Public investment management

    Appraisal, selection, and the project pipeline — how white elephants get funded and the gates that stop them.

    ~50 minModule 08
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How to use this course

Start with module 01 if the material is new; skip ahead if you have prior exposure. Each module is self-contained but the arc is sequential — the projects in the final module assume the toolkit from modules 1-11. Every module ends with key takeaways and a curated further-reading list with primary sources.