The Big Four made a kill auditing NSE 30 in 2017 grossing over N6.8 billion

The four biggest audit companies in Nigeria received remunerations in excess of N6.8 billion in 2017 according to data compiled from the annual reports of the top thirty companies listed on the stock exchange.

The Big Four (Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)) are the four biggest professional services networks in the world, offering audit, assurance services, taxation, management consulting, advisory, actuarial, corporate finance and legal services. They handle the vast majority of audits for public companies as well as many private companies.

Of the thirty biggest firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), only four failed to employ the services of largest international accounting firms leading to a Big Four market share of 87 percent on the NSE 30.

PwC had the best year, grossing over N2.9 billion in remunerations, 42.2 percent of the big four revenues on the NSE 30. This was followed by KPMG (N1.93 billion), Ernst & Young (N1.05 billion) and Deloitte & Touche with an estimated N980 million for services rendered in 2017.

“The numbers are not surprising,” said Maju Eldad, a chartered accountant. “I think 2018 figures will exceed N7 billion because the auditors will be able to charge more money seeing that companies financial performance improved last year.”

In terms of number of clients, Deloitte & Touche, the oldest indigenous professional services firm in Nigeria, led its peers, by a hair, controlling 8 of the firms classified under the NSE 30 index. The firms managed by Deloitte & Touche include Dangote Flour, NASCON, Nestle, Nigerian breweries, Presco, PZ Cussons, Dangote Cement and Ecobank.

KPMG and PwC were tied at second place auditing the books of 7 companies each. Flour Mills of Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC, Total, Union Bank, Unilever, Lafarge Africa and Zenith Bank were all being audited by KPMG while Access Bank, Dangote Sugar, Guaranty Trust Bank, Guinness, First Bank, Transcorp and UBA’s financials were under the scrutiny of PwC.

Ernst & Young was in the employ of four of the companies on the NSE 30, completing the firms managed by the Big Four. The companies were Oando, Sterling Bank, Seplat and Fidelity Bank. PKF Professional Services and Grant Thornton jointly audited the books of Fidelity Bank and Ecobank respectively while individually managing 11 Plc and Forte Oil. Okomu Oil whose books were managed by Horwath Definone and International Breweries (Baker Tilly Nigeria) complete the top 30 companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Public companies and banks are required to change auditors once in 10 years, and another 10 can be added if the company holds a tender but then reappoints the same auditor.

Ifeanyi John