Accenture in Africa—From Nigeria's Country Managing Director's Desk

Politically, Nigeria's fledgling democracy has shown the will to begin its journey towards becoming a high-performance government by implementing far-reaching fiscal and economic reform, and boosting the economic role of the private sector through an aggressive privatisation and foreign direct investment drive. The fruits of these efforts can be seen in positive developments such as the current gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 5.5 percent and relative stability of interest rates, the recent appreciation of the currency, the naira, against the dollar for the first time in seven years, and a strong rise in foreign reserves through improved fiscal discipline.

Government's efforts to introduce greater transparency into the economy by championing various transparency programmes, such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, have also contributed to an international groundswell of support for the country among governments and prospective foreign investors alike.

Furthermore, the government has shown commitment to dealing with the more volatile aspects of the economy, particularly high inflation, which averaged 18.2 percent in 2004, and to reducing the country's reliance on imports. Currently, imports account for as much as 40 percent of GDP while manufacturing capacity utilisation is estimated at only 35.5 percent.

Ongoing political and economic reform is going hand-in-hand with the deregulation or privatisation of economic sectors previously dominated by state-owned entities. To upgrade the poor roads and railway infrastructure, increasing use is likely to be made of private-public partnerships. Telecommunications, which was opened up to competition in the mobile market in 2001, presents further growth potential in 2006, when current licences expire and new licences are issued. The power sector is also being deregulated, with legislation to that effect passed in March 2005, paving the way for sector reform and the entry of independent power plant operators.

Accenture, which has a 20-year track record in the country, is well positioned to support Nigeria's economic transformation and modernisation, whether in our traditional operating areas such as resources and financial services or in new-growth areas such as products, as well as IT and business process outsourcing (BPO).

Our Nigeria operation has a reputation for delivering high performance to its clients by successfully delivering complex, multi–disciplinary change programmes backed by international knowledge assets, financial management and administrative support. This reputation, together with a core consulting team of 150 people, distinguishes us from the many 'fly-in' consultants with no local presence who attempt to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the economy.

At this point, Accenture Nigeria's greatest strengths lie in the financial services and resources sectors, where we have been active for 20 and 10 years respectively.

The financial services industry is one of the most actively regulated sectors in Nigeria and has achieved significant growth in assets and profitability. However, competition within the sector is intense and this, together with new recapitalisation requirements, is resulting in a wave of consolidation, merger and integration activity. At this point, about a dozen banks have merger plans, of which four are already working with Accenture to carry out post-merger integration plans. We are also leveraging the global firm's leadership in systems integration and technology to assist several major financial institutions, including First Bank of Nigeria, the country's biggest bank, to deliver high-quality services to their customers.

In resources, we are privileged to be working with several major oil and gas organisations, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), which is the national oil company of Nigeria. Currently, we are assisting NNPC with a wide-ranging transformation programme that is aimed at achieving improved levels of international competitiveness and sustainable profitability, enhancing Nigeria's oil and gas capacity and content, and enabling the NNPC to develop into an integrated oil and gas organisation.

As the country's oil and natural gas resources become increasingly sought after, we aim to contribute to the development of capacity by leveraging our systems integration and BPO expertise in both the upstream and downstream industries.

At the same time, Accenture Nigeria is moving fast to assist companies in the manufacturing, retail and general services sectors. In 2004, we established a Products Operating Group to help these sectors overcome capacity and delivery constraints. In the fast-moving consumer goods manufacturing sector, growth is being hampered by high costs of production and companies' reliance on raw material imports. Similarly, many manufacturers are hamstrung by poor distribution and could benefit significantly from Accenture's supply chain management experience.

Accenture has already played a meaningful role in supporting the delivery of high performance in the resources and financial services sectors in Nigeria and we look forward to building upon our strengths as a global player with a strong local presence in other emerging sectors. We intend focusing on employee skills development so as to support the accelerated growth of this operation in the next two to three years.

Omobola Johnson
Country Managing Director