BDO in Africa

Elevating African business 

BDO in Africa 

Africa offers considerable opportunity for businesses locally and overseas. This is why BDO is focused on creating a better-connected Africa practice, recognising that each country on the continent has its own unique business dynamics.   


Our approach 

BDO’s approach to elevating the African continent is different to other professional services firms. We do not adopt a ‘fly in’ and ‘fly out’ approach. Skills transfer and growth in each country is a priority for us: the BDO approach is to operate as ONE BDO, combining global reach with local delivery. To achieve this, we have four key clusters in Africa: 

  • East Africa
  • West Africa 
  • Southern Africa 
  • Northern Africa. 

Each cluster has a leader who manages that region. The goal is to achieve greater collaboration, maximised skills transfer and consistent quality across the continent, in the spirit of ONE BDO. This enables greater efficiencies in recruiting efforts, resourcing of clients and skills transfer. Ultimately, this structure works as a governance structure, while also ensuring a ONE BDO experience. 

BDO supports the elevation of strong in-country practices and seconding people as needed to meet the demand for specialist skills and talent. 


Regional and global presence

We are often asked about our scale and people usually respond: “BDO is bigger than we thought”.  

  • BDO is present in 166 countries globally, with approximately 115,000 people working out of over 1,700 offices across the world
  • In Africa, we are predominantly amongst the top 3-5 firms in the countries within which we operate 
  • We have an office in the top nine African countries (by GDP) and representation across Africa through our firms and referral firms: this gives us access to every country on the continent. 

We believe that the power of this network, our leaders and our in-market understanding, as well as our combined experience and expertise, place us perfectly to meet our clients’ needs.   

Our reputation has remained untarnished through all our associations because we are selective about the clients we have engaged with. This ensures that our people have the right experience – as well as the necessary capacity - as part of our retention strategies.  

Our promise is that we will continue to invest in our people across the continent and in our clients, no matter where they are located. We are ONE BDO – elevating people, business and society - and this will be your business’ experience with us, everywhere you need advice. 

Mark Stewart is BDO’s Regional Director for Africa, with strong support from the BDO EMEA leadership team.  


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