As a publicly listed entity, every business is expected to have its accounts audited by statute. The audit is also expected to be done by an external Auditor and Auditors must be changed at least every 10 years to maintain the independence of the Auditors.
Based on information gathered on the financial statements of the companies on the NSE-30, it was obtained that these companies paid a total of N8.87 billion as Auditor’s remuneration in 2020. This value is however exclusive of Ecobank’s Auditor’s fee, while the Auditor’s Fee for the year ended 31st June 2020 of Flour Mills of Nigeria was considered.
Auditors of the NSE-30 Companies
A cursory look at the Auditors of the NSE-30 showed that their external audit was done among only 6 auditing firms: PWC, KPMG, Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, and Crowe.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
PwC is a multinational professional services network of firms that provide a wide array of accounting and consulting services to its clientele. The firm ranks second largest professional services firm in the world which makes it one of the “Big Four.” Among the NSE-30 companies, PwC topped as the highest Auditor in terms of number of clients and received value.
In 2020 alone, PwC audited 9 out of the 30 companies and received a total auditor’s remuneration of N3.7 billion. The audited clients are Seplat, Guinness, Dangote Sugar, BUA Cement, Nascon, GTB, Access Bank, International Breweries and Zenith bank.
KPMG
KPMG is another international professional services firm that is also a member of the “Big Four.” The firm followed PwC on the chart, auditing 7 companies in 2020. From all these companies, KMPG made a total of N2.7 billion.
The 7 clients are Flour Mills, Total, Lafarge, FBN Holdings, Unilever, Stanbic and Dangote Cement. KPMG was appointed as the external auditors of FBN Holdings in April 2020, replacing PWC that had served as the bank and the holdings auditors for 8 years and 10 years respectively.