As businesses in the West African economy, particularly Nigeria, struggle to cope with challenges of dwindling revenue, falling naira, maintaining liquidity, strengthening P&L and watching financing, which are key factors for survival. Ian Aruofor, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Nigeria, in this interview with Modestus Anaesoronye, bares his mind on what the network is doing to help businesses, government progress in economic ventures. Excerpt:
PwC has spent some time in the West African sub-region. What are your services and how much have you covered the region?
PwC has been in West Africa sub-region for over 60 years with 57 clients across the entire region. From six administrative countries, we have expanded into Liberia and Sierra Leone, that was three years ago. Now, we are in eight countries including four Anglophone countries, which are Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia. We have a presence in Angola, Cameroon, Cote-divore and Senegal. So, from that point we cover the entire region providing services with four consulting teams.
We intend to basically provide solutions to clients across industry sectors as well as government on a broad range of issues. Whatever issues there is, that you fill as a business, be it regulatory or in the course of delivering value, we have a service line that provides value to you. Our service lines are competency based and expertise around finance and accounting, infrastructure projects, corporate finance, people and change. We have nine of those and expertise around industry line of services. That way, you get full perspective of what is going on in your business, company and your industry. And with that you can take more firm decisions on your business.
The West African economy, though still very small, has been the attraction of many foreign investors wanting to take position in the sub-region, what has been you experience at PwC?
It’s actually a very interesting market. People might consider it small from the perspective of how much is spent today, but it is very much of interest to foreign investors. It is important we state it is a combination of foreign and local players because local investors are also coming to play in the market. For any investor, they tend to basically look at opportunities in a particular market and elsewhere. And from the West African perspective, given what we have seen for companies and what their appetite is, the growth in the West African market with regard to the middle class is one of the key drivers of investment into the region.
There is a huge amount of interest because this market can actually pay for the goods and services produced based on these investments. The institutional frameworks that are coming across West Africa provides for a better security for investments that were already in place; the smooth transition of power in most West African countries that have taken place without violence is also helpful; Political will seems to swinging to a direction where most of the governments a towing towards creating a conducive atmosphere for foreign direct investment and investors are responding to it. PwC’s role has been both in developing framework for investors to come in and also very importantly, using our relationships to bring Nigeria to investors overseas and helping them with market entry strategies and how they can come to play in the local market.
Looking into the future what will PwC be doing to strengthen presence and create greater value for the West African market?
We are very passionate about West Africa because it is one of the growth stories we have to say about the African market. And West African story is the core of the growth story of Africa. So, from a bit of retrospective, what we have said is that we will prioritise the growth areas, and that is why we are emphasising West Africa. What we will do is to bring our capabilities in local practice but more importantly we will be connected to the entire network to ensure that whatever clients we support gets experience and service of our expert staff globally from an in-country perspective. West Africa is priority for PwC and we will continue to invest on this market.
Looking at the Nigerian market, can you share your experience on how you have been able to help companies come out of their problems or succeed in a particular project?
From the West African market, I will talk about activities in the area of telecoms, oil and gas, power, manufacturing and the financial services industry. Now, I will talk about what we have done for clients in our space (Nigeria), for example in the power sector. First and foremost, we have helped them to win bids, and later went into their assets to figure out what they were and what opportunities exist within that asset. Later, we came out with a clear business plan on how to transform these assets from what was perceived to be a much challenged state while it was in government hands to a top of the line firm within that industry.
What we have focused doing with the clients were to identify all drivers of the business that were unfortunately a loss making entity to a profit making one, that can service all its loans and provide returns to stakeholders but more importantly on its mandate to the public. And the result so far shows a lot more stability in the management as well as the people. The delivery of power has been better managed and the financials has been a lot better. It’s still a journey because what we have seen is improvement across board, but it is still at the foundation for the future. As they continue this journey, we expect and we are very clear that these results will continue.
The medium and small-scale businesses occupy a very important space in the Nigeria environment because of their employment generation capacity, what does PwC have for this sector?
Medium and small-scale businesses are platforms upon which large jobs are created, particularly in the future. We don’t work with them on one-off basis; we believe they are important in our service chain. We partner with them in their millions and our network helps them improve their capabilities and to achieve what they want to achieve.
With your experience in the West African market, what challenges generally are businesses facing?
There are critical challenges facing doing business in this region. It needs having good knowledge about doing business in this region, particularly understanding what institutional framework exist that affect business. It requires patience. If you understand these clearly, you can actually do your business profitably and deliver your mandate despite the lack of clarity around the institutional frameworks. Of recent in the region, specifically Nigeria, we know that the new challenge on the table has to do with currency and devaluation of the naira, which is a bit unfortunate.
That is coming from the businesses around oil and where oil prices are going. So, the responses of businesses naturally, which we have given our advise to businesses and to the general public is that you can’t still wait for this to catch with your businesses before you react. You need to immediately get ahead of it, plan liquidity control solutions, strengthen your profit and loss position; look at your financing, how your capitalisation is structured such that you respond to the challenges that will come from pressures on the dollar verses Naira if you are exposed to it.
PwC Nigeria and PwC West Africa, how are you connected to global network and how does their expertise, particularly the developed market, impact your service delivery here?
Basically, the way we operate, we say we are a network of firms. This means that each PwC office has its own partnership and is incorporated in a particular country. For example, PwC Nigeria is a Nigerian company made up of partners which exist here in Nigeria and, but over and above that PwC have offices in 157 countries, which means the network is in over 750 different locations.
From deployment perspective, you might be in partnership but together we are a network. What this mean is that anybody existing outside the Nigerian market could be brought in when his expertise are needed and when mine is needed oversees, I am also taken there. When there is a project going on oversees where my expertise supersedes that of those available there, I am taking to those places to work as well. PwC is marrying the entire network fully integrated into an operating standpoint to ensure that our best resources are deployed to where they are needed most at whatever time they are needed.
