BDO, the world’s fifth largest auditing and accounting firm, opens its office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in partnership with Next Consult P.L.C., a local consultancy firm, according to The Reporter.

Sandeep Khapre CEO of BDO for East Africa told The Reporter that, his company’s priority in Ethiopia is to bring in more investors and bring equity into the market in various fields of investments that the company engages in the future.

"For the realization of this project, our partnership with Next Consult will help us a lot since the company is well established in Ethiopia" Khapre said. "Furthermore, our partnership will help the country because we will share our expertise while Next will deal with the local stuff."

He also said BDO will work together with its local partner to help the financial sector. "We know that foreign banking is not allowed, but we are aiming at strengthening the local banks so that they can be competitive in the coming years and be efficient if foreign banks are to enter the country", Khapre said.

BDO International is the fifth major international consultancy firm to open offices in Ethiopia after Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Grant Thornton and McKinsey and Co.

The company has already established offices in some African countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar, Seychelles and Mauritius. As of 2013, BDO has Member Firms in 138 countries, employed 55,000 workers in 1,204 offices throughout the world.

Source: The Reporter