TheCable

Deloitte, an audit, consulting and corporate finance company, on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Lagos Business School to deliver insightful solutions to the economy.

The MOU, which was signed at Deloitte’s new office space at Civic Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos, will see both leading institutions bring stakeholders from the business world to an annual roundtable for proffering insightful solutions.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Anthony Olukoju, Deloitte West Africa chief operating officer, said Deloitte is physically present in 34 African countries, and operates out of 51 of the 54 countries on the continent.

He said with such presence, Deloitte’s strategic intent is to gain and maintain leadership in professional services in and out of Nigeria.

“Our purpose is to make an impact that matters. We can only make that when we work with the best, and that is why we have chosen Lagos Business School,” said.

“Deloitte and LBS are learning organisations, and we believe that together, we have the knowledge to share with the business community in order to have a positive effect on the Nigerian economy.

“We have come together to sign an MOU on what would be a mutually beneficial journey in the Nigerian business market. This is an offshoot of a recent agreement between Deloitte and LBS.

“We’ll provide a platform for captains of industries to discuss trending and emerging business topics.”

Okunedo and Olukoju (flanked by Phido) signing the MOU

Enase Okunedo, dean of the Lagos Business School, who represented the school at the ceremony, said the whole idea is to bring together business leaders and C-Suite executives to discuss emerging trends.

She said LBS was partnering Deloitte to deliver on common interests, adding that the school sees management as “the means to influence society and not just the way by which managers and executives can make a living”.

“There’s some alignment of objectives between Deloitte and ourselves. One of the greatest problems that assail us in Africa is the dearth of management talents, and Deloitte seeks to attain leadership in talent as well,” she said.

“We at LBS are focused on developing managers across Africa, and when we look at the African terrain, one of the biggest problems is the lack of managerial talents.”

She said Nigeria has the raw material, which must be developed via such collaborations between the academia and industry.

Marie-Theresa Phido, Deloitte West Africa’s Client and Industries leader, said the roundtable for 2016 would be focused around the theme: ‘How new business is disrupting traditional business in Nigeria’.

She gave examples of how innovative trends have disrupted tradition ways of doing business, listing the likes of Uber in transportation, ITunes in music, IrokoTV in Nollywood and Wakanow in travels.

She said the roundtable for 2016 would be focusing on how innovators are disrupting traditional businesses in Nigeria and Africa.

Phido said the date for the thought leadership roundtable would be communicated within two months, adding that the knowledge garnered from the roundtable will be made available for driving solutions in the business world.