ABUBAKAR BELLO URGES INTERNAL AUDITORS TO ADOPT A MORE COLLABORATIVE AND ITERATIVE APPROACH.

▪ ABUBAKAR BELLO TASKS AUDITORS ON THE NEED TO EMBRACE AGILE AUDITING

The need for Internal Auditors to be more proactive in providing assurance over governance, risk and control has once again been brought to the fore. This was contained in a speech delivered recently by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM Bank), Mr. Abubakar A. Bello at the 49th Quarterly General Meeting of the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN).
Speaking at the event which was hosted by NEXIM Bank with the theme: ‘Agile Auditing: The Future of Internal Audit’, Bello said “the adoption of agile principles in the audit practice is a trend sweeping across the internal audit world, yet many auditors are unsure of how to get started as such, find it difficult scaling up. He stated that there is no doubt the fact that there is a growing imperative for organizations to adopt more agile ways of working across functions and programmes to keep up with the huge competitive landscape and ever-increasing pace of change which hitherto poses a challenge to the internal audit function, hence, Auditors must see it as an opportunity to deliver deeper insight into strategic business issues and risks, respond rapidly to changing priorities and emerging issues while becoming forward-looking in anticipating risks.
Bello further hinted that the era where the internal audit function has traditionally been carried out using the ‘Waterfall’ model method and tends to be more structured with defined stages and runs on a linear fashion is gone as such, Auditors should adopt a more collaborative and iterative approach to audit planning, scoping and delivery, noting that there an increasing demand by the stakeholders for a more efficient assurance, better advice on processes and controls, and greater risk anticipation – this need has become even more due to impact of Covid-19 on businesses.
Mr. Abubakar Bello urged the Auditors not to see the word agile as a mere buzzword that connotes ‘fast’, rather, it should encompass what it truly means and applied into improving their audit processes and methodology to enable them to become valued stakeholders.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of ACAEBIN, Mr. Yinka Tiamiyu in his welcome address said that it is in recognition of the need for a more agile internal audit function that the Association continuously organizes training and retraining for her members so as to be in a better position to deal with emerging issues in the industry.