EY: What One of the World’s Biggest Professional Services Firms Does — and Why It Matters to Africa

EY: What One of the World’s Biggest Professional Services Firms Does — and Why It Matters to Africa

By Chibuzo Ohiagu, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, AfroView TV

When people hear the name EY, they may think of accounting.

That is understandable.

EY is one of the four global professional services networks commonly referred to as the Big Four, alongside PwC, Deloitte and KPMG.

But describing EY simply as an accounting firm misses the scale of what it actually does.

Today, EY operates across audit and assurance, tax, consulting, strategy and transactions, technology, risk and other professional services.

Its work touches some of the largest companies, financial institutions and organisations in the world.

In Nigeria, EY operates offices in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt and says it has more than 1,000 colleagues across the country. Its Nigerian practice covers audit, tax consulting, strategy and transactions and consulting.

So what exactly does EY do?

And why does a global professional services firm matter to Africa's economic future?

EY Is More Than an Accounting Firm

The modern EY business is built around several broad areas of professional expertise.

These include:

• Audit and assurance

• Tax

• Consulting

• Strategy and transactions

• Technology

• Risk management

• Business transformation

Audit remains fundamental because companies, investors, regulators and other stakeholders depend on credible financial information.

But businesses today face problems that cannot be solved simply by checking financial statements.

They need to understand changing regulations.

They need to manage technology.

They need to restructure businesses.

They need to make investment decisions.

They need to manage cybersecurity and data risks.

And increasingly, they need to understand artificial intelligence.

That is where EY's broader professional-services model comes in.

Why Audit Matters

At the heart of EY's business is a relatively simple idea: trust matters in financial markets.

Investors need reliable information.

Lenders need to understand the financial position of borrowers.

Shareholders need credible financial reporting.

Regulators need companies to comply with applicable standards.

Auditors therefore occupy an important position between companies and the wider financial system.

EY Nigeria's transparency reporting places significant emphasis on audit quality, independence, objectivity, professional scepticism and continuous improvement. Its 2025 transparency report also describes systems for accountability, ethics and quality management.

This is important because an audit is not supposed to be a guarantee that a company will succeed.

It is about providing independent assurance around financial reporting and related controls.

That distinction matters.

A profitable company can eventually fail.

An audited company can still face unexpected risks.

And an audit does not eliminate the responsibility of management.

What it does is provide greater confidence in financial information when the audit is performed properly.

EY and Tax

Tax is another major part of EY's work.

For businesses operating across countries, tax can become extremely complicated.

Companies have to deal with national tax laws, international transactions, transfer pricing, indirect taxes and regulatory changes.

The complexity increases when businesses operate across multiple jurisdictions.

For African companies expanding internationally, understanding these rules can become a major strategic issue.

Tax is therefore no longer simply a question of calculating what a company owes.

It can affect investment decisions, corporate structures, transactions and international expansion.

This is one reason professional tax advisory has become such an important part of the Big Four business model.

Consulting: Helping Companies Change

Consulting is another area where EY's role has expanded considerably.

Companies hire consultants to help solve problems involving strategy, technology, operations, people, transformation and risk.

The fundamental question is often not:

"What is wrong with our accounts?"

It is:

"How do we change the business?"

That could mean introducing new technology, redesigning operations, entering a new market, restructuring an organisation or improving how data is used.

For African businesses, these questions are becoming increasingly important.

Many companies are trying to grow while dealing with inflation, infrastructure constraints, currency pressures, skills shortages, regulation and rapid technological change.

Professional advice can help organisations navigate those problems.

But advice is only valuable when it can be translated into something that works in the real world.

EY and the Artificial Intelligence Revolution

This is where EY's story becomes particularly interesting in 2026.

Artificial intelligence is not simply another service EY sells to clients.

It is changing the way EY itself operates.

In April 2026, EY announced the global rollout of enterprise-scale agentic AI in its Assurance practice.

The technology is being integrated into EY Canvas, its global assurance platform, which EY says processes more than 1.4 trillion lines of journal-entry data each year.

The initiative covers 130,000 assurance professionals working across 160,000 audit engagements in more than 150 countries and territories. EY said the AI capabilities are expected to support end-to-end audit activities by 2028 while retaining human judgement and professional scepticism.

That is a significant development.

The company is effectively becoming a test case for the technology it is helping other organisations adopt.

Why Agentic AI Matters

Traditional software usually waits for a human to tell it what to do.

Agentic AI is designed to perform more complex sequences of tasks with greater autonomy, within defined controls.

That could eventually change how many professional services are delivered.

An auditor might spend less time performing repetitive analytical work and more time investigating unusual findings.

A tax professional might use AI to analyse large volumes of transactions.

A consultant might use AI to process information and model scenarios more quickly.

But this creates an important question:

Who is responsible when an AI-supported professional decision is wrong?

That is why EY is also positioning AI governance and assurance as a major part of its business.

The AI Governance Problem

Companies are rushing to deploy artificial intelligence.

But many are discovering that using AI is easier than governing it.

An organisation can buy an AI system in a matter of weeks.

Building policies around data protection, security, accountability, human oversight, risk management and regulatory compliance can take much longer.

EY has been expanding its AI assurance capabilities around these issues.

In July 2026, EY said it had been recognised as a leader in The Forrester Wave for AI Consulting Services, with particular strengths identified around AI operations, operating models, governance, security and compliance.

Whether one agrees with every external ranking or not, the broader trend is clear.

AI consulting is becoming a major professional-services market.

EY Is Also Investing Heavily in AI

EY's AI ambitions are not limited to its own audit technology.

In May 2026, EY and Microsoft announced a new initiative involving more than US$1 billion in joint investment over five years to help organisations move from AI experimentation towards enterprise-wide adoption.

EY said it was also scaling Microsoft Copilot across its workforce of more than 400,000 people.

This tells us something important about the professional-services industry.

The Big Four are increasingly competing not just as accounting and advisory firms, but as technology-enabled transformation companies.

That is a major shift.

Why Does This Matter to Africa?

Africa is entering the AI era with both opportunities and disadvantages.

Businesses can potentially use AI to improve productivity, customer service, financial analysis, logistics, healthcare, agriculture and other sectors.

But African organisations also face challenges involving infrastructure, computing capacity, data quality, skills and financing.

There is therefore a risk that AI adoption could deepen existing economic inequalities if only large organisations have access to advanced systems and skilled professionals.

This makes AI governance and responsible implementation particularly important.

Africa does not simply need more AI.

It needs useful AI.

It needs technology that solves real problems.

And it needs professionals who understand both the technology and the local environment in which it is being deployed.

That creates an opportunity for firms such as EY.

EY's Role in West Africa

EY's presence in West Africa is not limited to Nigeria.

Anthony Oputa serves as EY's Regional Managing Partner for West Africa and Chief Executive for the EY West Africa Cluster.

His responsibilities include overseeing EY's business across the cluster, while also holding leadership responsibilities in assurance, financial services and capital-market and accounting advisory services.

This regional structure matters because businesses increasingly operate across borders.

A company may be headquartered in Nigeria but have customers, suppliers, subsidiaries or investors elsewhere in Africa.

A multinational may enter several African markets simultaneously.

Regional expertise can therefore become as important as expertise within a single country.

Nigeria's Position in the EY Story

Nigeria remains one of the most important business markets in Africa.

Its large population, financial sector, energy industry, telecommunications market, consumer economy and growing technology ecosystem create opportunities for professional services.

At the same time, the Nigerian business environment is complicated.

Companies have to navigate taxation, regulation, foreign exchange, infrastructure, financing, labour issues and rapidly changing technology.

This creates demand for professional expertise.

EY's Nigerian offices in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt provide a local presence from which it serves clients in the country.

But local presence alone is not enough.

The real test for international professional-services firms is whether their expertise produces measurable value for businesses operating in the markets they serve.

Professional Advice Is Not Government Policy

There is another distinction readers should understand.

EY can analyse a government policy.

It can advise a company on how to respond to regulation.

It can publish economic research.

It can advise an investor.

But EY does not make Nigerian government policy.

Government institutions create laws and policies.

Regulators enforce rules within their mandates.

Courts interpret laws.

Businesses make commercial decisions.

Professional firms operate within that system.

This distinction is important because the influence of large advisory firms can sometimes make their analysis appear more authoritative than it actually is.

Professional advice remains advice.

Its quality should be judged by evidence, expertise, independence, relevance and results.

The Question of Trust

The bigger issue surrounding companies such as EY is ultimately trust.

Auditors are trusted to provide independent assurance.

Tax advisers are trusted to interpret complex rules professionally.

Consultants are trusted with sensitive information.

Technology advisers may gain access to important systems and data.

That makes ethics and independence central to the professional-services industry.

EY Nigeria's transparency reporting specifically discusses its global code of conduct, independence, professional integrity, accountability frameworks and mechanisms for raising ethical concerns.

These are not merely corporate slogans.

They are essential because professional services depend heavily on reputation.

Once trust disappears, expertise loses much of its value.

What EY's Future Could Look Like

EY's direction suggests that the professional-services industry is entering a new phase.

The traditional model was built around highly trained professionals providing expertise through human labour.

The emerging model combines:

Human expertise + data + technology + artificial intelligence + professional judgement.

That does not necessarily mean human professionals disappear.

Instead, their roles may change.

An auditor may spend less time manually analysing transactions and more time evaluating complex risks.

A consultant may spend less time collecting information and more time interpreting AI-generated insights.

A tax professional may focus more heavily on strategic decisions and less on repetitive calculations.

The most valuable professionals could increasingly be those who know how to use technology without surrendering professional judgement.

What This Means for African Businesses

For African companies, the lesson is bigger than EY.

Businesses should not adopt AI simply because competitors are doing it.

They should first ask:

What problem are we trying to solve?

Do we have reliable data?

Can our employees use the technology effectively?

What risks does the system create?

Who is accountable when it makes a mistake?

Will the investment actually improve the business?

Those questions are likely to become increasingly important as AI moves from experimentation into everyday business operations.

AfroView Perspective

EY represents something larger than one of the world's biggest professional-services brands.

Its evolution reflects the transformation taking place across modern business.

Audit is becoming more technology-driven.

Tax is becoming increasingly digital.

Consulting is becoming more dependent on data.

And artificial intelligence is beginning to change the way professional expertise itself is delivered.

For Africa, this transformation presents an opportunity, but also a warning.

Technology can help African businesses become more productive and globally competitive.

But technology cannot substitute for strong institutions, reliable data, skilled people, sound governance and accountability.

The future of professional services in Africa will therefore not be determined simply by which firm deploys the most sophisticated AI.

It will be determined by whether that technology helps organisations make better decisions and create genuine economic value.