NEXIM Bank urges auditors to embrace agile auditing

Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM Bank) has advised auditors across the country to embrace agile auditing.

The adoption of agile principles in the audit practice, according to Abubakar A. Bello managing director/CEO, NEXIM, is a trend sweeping across the internal audit world, yet many auditors are unsure of how to get started as such, find it difficult to scale up.

The need for Internal Auditors to be more proactive in providing assurance over governance, risk, and control has once again been brought to the fore.

This was contained in a speech delivered recently by Bello at the 49th quarterly general meeting of the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN).

Speaking at the event which was hosted by NEXIM Bank with the theme: ‘Agile Auditing: The Future of Internal Audit’, Bello said there is a growing imperative for organizations to adopt more agile ways of working across functions and programmes to keep up with the huge competitive landscape and the ever-increasing pace of change which hitherto poses a challenge to the internal audit function, hence, Auditors must see it as an opportunity to deliver deeper insight into strategic business issues and risks, respond rapidly to changing priorities and emerging issues while becoming forward-looking in anticipating risks.

Bello further hinted that the era where the internal audit function has traditionally been carried out using the ‘Waterfall’ model method and tends to be more structured with defined stages and runs in a linear fashion is gone as such, Auditors should adopt a more collaborative and iterative approach to audit planning, scoping and delivery, noting that there an increasing demand by the stakeholders for a more efficient assurance, better advice on processes and controls, and greater risk anticipation – this need has become even more due to impact of Covid-19 on businesses.

Abubakar Bello urged the Auditors not to see the word agile as a mere buzzword that connotes ‘fast’, rather, it should encompass what it truly means and applied to improving their audit processes and methodology to enable them to become valued stakeholders.

Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of ACAEBIN, Yinka Tiamiyu in his welcome address said that it is in recognition of the need for a more agile internal audit function that the Association continuously organizes training and retraining for her members so as to be in a better position to deal with emerging issues in the industry.