Ayomide Samson, Abuja
The Managing Director, Nigeria Export-Import (NEXIM,) Bank, Abubakar Bello has urged Internal Auditors to adopt agile auditing and be more proactive in providing assurance on governance, risk and control.
According to NEXIM in a statement issued weekend in Abuja, the organisation’s boss gave the charge at the 49thQuarterly General Meeting of the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN).
The event was hosted by NEXIM and had as its theme “Agile Auditing: The Future of Internal Audit”.
In an address, the managing director said that the adoption of agile principles in audit practice was a trend sweeping across the internal audit world, yet many auditors were unsure of how to get started and so found it difficult to scale up.
He said the fact that there was growing imperative for organisations to adopt more agile ways of working across functions and programmes was not in doubt.
This, he said, was to keep up with the huge competitive landscape and ever-increasing pace of change which 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.”
According to Bello, the era where the internal audit function is traditionally carried out using the ‘Waterfall’ model method which tends to be more structured with defined stages and runs on a linear fashion is gone.
To this end, he urged auditors to adopt a more collaborative and interactive approach to audit planning, scoping and delivery.
He said that there was an increasing demand by stakeholders for a more efficient assurance, better advice on processes and controls, and greater risk anticipation.
According to him, this need has become even more due to impact of COVID-19 on businesses.
He also urged the auditors not to see the word ‘AGILE’ as a mere buzzword that connotes ‘fast’, rather, it should encompass what it truly means.
He said it should be applied into improving their audit processes and methodology to enable them become valued stakeholders.
Yinka Tiamiyu, Chairman of ACAEBIN, in his welcome address said that it was in recognition of the need for a more agile internal audit function that the association continuously organises training and retraining for her members.
He said that with this, they would be in a better position to deal with emerging issues in the industry.