AFTER FIVE YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, AFRICA'S CX COUNCIL PREPARES FOR RELAUNCH

In 2019, four national customer experience associations registered a body to speak for the profession as a whole, not just one country: the African Council of Customer Experience Organizations, ACXCO. Its mission was simple and ambitious give Africa's fragmented, country-by-country CX profession a single, credible, continental voice. It never got the chance to find out what that voice could do.

Within months, COVID-19 shut borders and forced every founding member, including the Chartered Institute of Customer Management (CICM), into survival mode. Continental ambitions were shelved while national associations fought to keep membership and revenue intact. ACXCO existed on paper. In practice, it went quiet.

Five years on, that silence is ending. CICM and its fellow founders have confirmed that ACXCO is being actively relaunched, with a rebuilt governance structure, a defined mandate, and a genuine plan to engage Africa's continental institutions on behalf of the CX profession.

It would be easy to read ACXCO's quiet first five years as failure. Those close to the relaunch argue the opposite: the idea was right, the timing was wrong. This is not a rebrand, it is the original 2019 registration and founding coalition, resuming work that COVID interrupted.

WHAT ACXCO IS ACTUALLY FOR

ACXCO's mandate is deliberately narrow and powerful. It does not run national conferences, compete with members for revenue, or interfere in how a national body governs itself. What it does is everything a single national association cannot do alone: set continental CX standards; operate a multi-level accreditation pathway giving African CX qualifications currency that crosses borders; run an independent dispute resolution mechanism; publish an annual State-of-CX-in-Africa research report; run an International Exchange Programme; and represent the profession at the African Union and in international policy forums.

It is, in effect, the difference between CX in Africa being a collection of national conversations and CX in Africa being a profession, recognised the way accounting, law, and engineering already are.

A SEAT AT AFRICA'S TOP TABLES

The most consequential part of the relaunch is external: giving the CX profession formal standing with the institutions that shape how Africa trades and regulates across borders. ACXCO's advocacy mandate includes direct engagement with the African Union, positioning it as the body regulators and multinational employers can point to when asking whether Africa has a recognised, professionally governed CX credential. Until now, the honest answer in most countries has been no.

That engagement extends to regional economic communities, SADC, ECOWAS, the EAC, and COMESA — and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, whose work on trade in services is directly relevant to a profession operating across every service-sector border on the continent, alongside other continental professional and standards bodies.

For founding members, this is the payoff five years in the making a platform that can put a “recognised CX credential” in front of the AU and regional trade blocs in a way no national body can alone.

REBUILDING THE HOUSE

The governance model rests on a principle its architects call non-negotiable: one member organisation, one vote. A national CX body from a small market carries the same weight as one from the continent's largest economies.

A full Board and technical committees covering standards and accreditation, dispute resolution, research, and partnerships are expected to be seated in the coming months. An inaugural appointed Board will hold office before the Council moves to full elections within 24 months, with geographic safeguards ensuring no single region dominates. Headquarters remain dual-seated across Botswana and Ethiopia, with country committee seats giving every member a technical voice, not just an annual vote.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

The relaunch is designed to widen the coalition, not just restart it. National CX boards across the continent, beyond the original founders, are being invited to join as Full Members, alongside regional bodies, training providers, and supporting partners.

The logic is the one that led four associations to found ACXCO in the first place: a fragmented profession will always be outmuscled by whoever writes the rules first. Every national body that joins early helps write the rules the rest of the continent will eventually follow.

WHAT COMES NEXT

For CICM and its fellow founders, the message is consistent: this is not a new organisation asking for a leap of faith. It is the original 2019 coalition, resuming interrupted work, with a governance structure built to last, an advocacy mandate reaching into the AU and regional trade blocs, and an open invitation to every national CX body on the continent to help finish what four associations started.

National CX boards, training providers, and partners interested in collaboration are invited to reach out to the ACXCO Secretariat through the website https://www.acxo.org/ .