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