PwC restructures its African operations

PriceWaterCoopers (PwC) has restructured its operations in Africa to create a new “Pan-African leadership” to increase efficiency on the continent. The new structure pools PwC businesses at three regional levels. These are Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Mauritius in the Eastern hub, Nigeria, Ghana and Angola in the West and the southern hub, which is the largest and consisting of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Swaziland in the. PwC, the world’s largest professional services firm aims to consolidate its market leadership position on the continent amidst heightened competition from its other “big four” global rival firms including, Ernest and Young, Deloitte and KPMG.The firm announced a strong performance for the financial year 2011/2012 where revenue in Africa and the Middle East accelerated by 15 per cent to $1.1 billion. Its total revenue for the same period was $31.5 billion.“…Our results this financial year are testament to the trust that clients have in the quality of PwC work, the talent of our people and the strength of the PwC network in Africa,” Suresh Kana, PwC Africa Territory Senior Partner said in a statement.The firm says its operations in Rwanda have doubled in size since launching operations in 2010. According to Bernice Kimacia, PwC Rwanda Country Senior Partner, the new network will help provide a wide range of professional skills to the Rwandan market. Philip Kinisu, the new Chairman PwC Africa Governance Board, said; “In 2010 we announced PwC’s planned investment in Africa to access new opportunities in high growth territories and to build strategic capabilities in our assurance, tax and advisory practices. This new PwC Africa business provides a more effective platform for these investments and underpins plans to double the size of the African workforce and revenues in the next five years.” “We have continually recruited fresh graduates and professionals from Rwanda, the Diaspora community and the region. “Once on board, we expose our teams to continual training and development via on the job experience, to ensure that our people are growing professionally and that we are meeting our clients’ needs,” he added. PwC has offices in 771 cities across 158 countries and employs over 180,000 people. It had total revenues of $31.5 billion in the financial year 2012, of which $14.9 billion was generated by its Assurance practice, $7.9 billion by its Tax practice and $8.7 billion by its Advisory practice. The firm was formed in 1998 by a merger between Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse. The trading name was shortened to PwC in September 2010 as part of a major rebranding exercise. As of 2010, the US PwC firm was the seventh-largest privately owned organisation in the United States.