As a demonstration of its commitment to the Nigerian and African market, Deloitte, one of the leading professional services firms in the world, has announced the formation of an integrated practice across Africa with Nigeria playing a strategic role in the new growth process. The establishment of the integrated Deloitte Africa and the dedicated investment in Nigeria by Akintola Williams Deloitte (AWD) will ensure clients are served seamlessly in Nigeria and across the entire continent.
Deloitte has a presence in 34 countries in Africa and these firms have been clustered into English, French and Portuguese-speaking areas, and also the Middle East aligned firms in Africa, to better facilitate the service delivery to our clients. Deloitte is very fortunate to already have very well established practices across the African continent, with most of them being the leading firms in their markets. The legal integration of these firms will move Deloitte into a completely different league, further cementing its market leading position in Africa. Deloitte in Africa is represented by over 350 partners, over 6 000 professional staff and revenues in excess of US$ 664 million.
The English speaking African practice is managed by a representative board. The Board oversees operations across 15 countries in South, West and East Africa, which will serve the overall best interest of its clients. Nigeria and Ghana will be part of the West African cluster.
Lwazi Bam, the CEO of Deloitte Africa, asserts that as part of this integration, Deloitte has designated Nigeria a “Priority Market.” As a Priority Market, AWD will receive substantial financial investments aimed at enhancing the quality and breadth of services provided to its local and cross border clients. This will leverage off the great depth of expertise already on the continent and across the globe.
As part of these expansion plans, AWD announced the formation of a new governance Board and the appointment of Olufemi Abegunde as the Chairman. Olufemi Abegunde currently leads the firm‘s Oil & Gas practice. Tawanda Gumbo who previously was the CEO of Deloitte Zimbabwe/Malawi and has most recently been the leader of the Consumer Business practice in Nigeria will serve as the Transitional Leader. The current CEO of AWD, Adeniyi Obe, will be retiring at the end of the month.
“Mr. Akintola Williams, Nigeria’s first chartered accountant, founded the firm more than 50 years ago,” Abegunde said. “He had the wisdom to bring us into the Deloitte network, and we are now one of the leading professional services provider in Nigeria. We have evolved from our proud roots of being an indigenous firm to a world class practice. Mr. Williams is very proud of this next stage in our evolution.”Abegunde added, “Our clients will now have even more seamless access to the pool of expertise available throughout Deloitte’s regional and world-wide practices. They will be the biggest beneficiaries. It will permit the best expertise to be deployed on an assignment, regardless of country.
Tawanda Gumbo commented, “Our goal is to be the Standard of Excellence in Nigeria in each of our service lines. This is also a reflection of our confidence in the huge potential of the Nigerian market as well as a deep desire to further develop the human capital base in Nigeria. We are committed to ensuring that Deloitte’s core values of integrity, objectivity, independence and technical excellence are part of our DNA within Akintola Williams Deloitte. ”
