The African Chief Economists Network, known as the ACE-Network, was unveiled on the final day of the 2026 African Economic Conference in Abidjan, emerging as one of the conference’s most consequential outcomes. The launch came as African governments and development institutions grapple with rising debt, intensifying climate pressures, geopolitical tensions and a shifting global financial system — pressures that made the case for structured, continent-wide economic coordination impossible to ignore.
Digital Governance Will Test the Network’s Ambitions Most
Federico Tomás Weber, a digital marketing specialist and SEO strategist who follows the Spanish-speaking online sports market and its regulatory evolution, sees a particular challenge buried inside the network’s mandate.
The ACE-Network is designed to operate as a collaborative platform where members exchange research, identify emerging economic risks and develop coordinated policy recommendations rather than functioning as a new institution with its own bureaucratic architecture. That distinction matters, Weber notes, because building genuine evidence-based governance for fast-moving digital sectors requires more than goodwill among economists — it requires concrete reference points from markets that have already worked through the hard questions.
Delegates at the Abidjan conference flagged digital transformation, artificial intelligence and regional value chains as central agenda items, signalling that African economists will increasingly be asked to weigh in on rules for sectors where the technology outruns the regulatory tradition. When those conversations deepen, practitioners like Weber observe, economists naturally look abroad for comparative models Spain sports betting sites, for instance, were brought under a coordinated framework of tax obligations, licensing requirements and consumer-protection rules over several years — a process that economists studying fast-growing digital markets cite as an example of the kind of evidence-based, coordinated regulatory architecture the ACE-Network is working toward more broadly.
“The value of any coordinated network lies in the quality of the comparative evidence its members can bring to the table — without that, recommendations stay generic.”
Weber’s observation points to a gap the network will need to close if digital governance is to move from conference agenda item to actionable policy guidance.
A Platform, Not a New Institution
The ACE-Network is invitation-only. Its membership draws chief economists from development finance institutions, multilateral organisations, African governments, central banks, universities, think tanks and the private sector — a deliberately wide circle intended to prevent any single institutional culture from dominating the exchange.
Structurally, the network will convene annually during the African Economic Conference itself, supplemented by quarterly virtual discussions and special sessions triggered by major economic shocks. That cadence is designed to keep analysis current without demanding the kind of permanent secretariat that would transform the platform into yet another layer of institutional overhead. The quarterly rhythm, in particular, is meant to sustain momentum between the headline annual gathering and to allow members to share emerging data before it becomes outdated.
The four membership categories span public and private actors, academic and operational roles, giving the network a breadth that few existing forums match. Whether that breadth translates into coherent, unified recommendations rather than competing institutional positions will be among the early tests of the model.
Senior Leaders Set a High Bar for Outcomes
The statements from senior officials at the launch reflected both ambition and a clear-eyed acknowledgement of what the platform must actually deliver.
Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, Senior Vice-President of the African Development Bank Group, spoke on behalf of AfDB President Dr Sidi Ould Tah and framed the network as a major step toward practical, research-grounded policymaking. “The responsibility now lies in turning knowledge into measurable progress,” she said — a formulation that resists easy celebration and sets a concrete standard.
Prof Kevin Urama, AfDB Chief Economist and Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, made the investment case directly. “Africa must invest more in research, knowledge systems and data if it wants to influence reforms to the international financial architecture,” he said. Urama also pointed to a structural problem the network could help solve: duplication of analytical effort across institutions weakens collective early-warning systems, and better coordination would address both.
Dr Raymond Gilpin, Chief Economist at the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, identified specific areas where the network’s influence could be felt. He described it as capable of narrowing the chronic gap between research findings and policy decisions, and said it could meaningfully support implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, improve domestic resource mobilisation across member states, and help translate Africa’s rapidly growing population into a driver of sustainable economic growth rather than a fiscal pressure.
Dr Hanan Morsy, Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief Economist at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, offered the starkest framing. “No African country can successfully navigate today’s interconnected economic challenges on its own,” she said — an observation that doubles as the political rationale for the whole enterprise.
The Stakes Behind the Launch
The 2026 African Economic Conference, reported by Devdiscourse, was hosted by the African Development Bank Group in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. More than 4,000 participants joined virtually across the three days, alongside ministers, central bank officials, academics, development experts and private-sector leaders attending in person in Abidjan — a scale that reflects both the conference’s growing authority and the appetite for exactly the kind of coordinated thinking the ACE-Network is meant to supply.
Delegates were not short of potential opportunity to discuss alongside the risks. Africa’s young population, its renewable energy resources, its critical mineral reserves and the expanding regional market created by AfCFTA all featured in conversations about what better-coordinated economic policy could unlock. Industrialisation, climate resilience and development finance rounded out an agenda that stretched from the immediate to the structural.
The consensus that emerged was not that Africa lacks opportunities, but that fragmented, under-resourced and poorly coordinated economic policymaking has repeatedly left those opportunities unrealised. The ACE-Network is the institutional response to that diagnosis.
Dr Morsy’s formulation at the close of proceedings captured the accountability standard the network now carries: its success will be judged not by membership rosters or meeting frequency, but by whether it delivers stronger policies, greater resilience and more inclusive growth across the continent.