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Josh Bamfo

NIGERIA - Economy

Josh Bamfo

Partner & Head, Transfer Pricing services practice Andersen

Bio

Josh Bamfo is the Partner and Head of the Transfer Pricing (TP) Services practice at Andersen in Nigeria as well as the Global Co-Leader for TP with responsibilities for Africa & Middle East. He has over 14 years of experience specializing in TP while working for big four firms in the US, South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana. He was previously a visiting assistant professor of economics at the University of Delaware in the US prior to starting his career in TP with EY in Atlanta, the US. He is a speaker at various TP seminars and has authored a number of TP articles in globally recognized tax journals.

Andersen is fully on its way to becoming a one-stop shop to provide best-in-class advice to its clients after its rebranding exercise.

What changes have arisen from Andersen rebranding as a tax and business advisory firm?

When we started in 2017, we were focused on tax and regulatory services at a time when we did not provide business advisory services or legal services in the market. Within tax and regulatory services, we organized ourselves into five units: tax advisory and regulatory services; oil, gas, and power services; commercial practice, which are all industries other than oil and gas and power; private client and family wealth practice; and transfer pricing services, which I head. Next, was to add a legal firm in Nigeria called TNP as a collaborating firm of our global network of firms. This a separate legal entity that focuses on the provision of legal services. Finally, prior to the rebranding from Andersen Tax to Andersen, we added business advisory services as a new division to expand our service offerings to include accounting services, risk advisory services, forensic services, financial advisory services, strategy and operations advisory services, and technology advisory services. Thus, the rebranding has aligned perfectly with our strategic plan to expand our service offerings beyond tax and regulatory services to include business advisory services and become a one-stop shop for providing best-in-class complementary services to our clients.

Some of your largest clients are currently in fintech and agriculture. Is this where you see the greatest demand for your services in the future?

Depending on the type of services to be provided, some sectors will be more important than others. With respect to transfer pricing services, most of our clients will be multinational enterprises and indigenous group companies. Examples of industries that are currently important for our transfer pricing services include consumer and industrial markets, financial services, fintech, and oil and gas. The consumer and industrial markets, which include agriculture and agro-allied industry, will continue to be important for us because of the importance of the industry to the Nigerian economy and the fact that group companies in that industry tend to have significant related party transactions. Nigeria being the most populous African country means that the significant potential demand will be a source of attraction for both foreign and local direct investments in this industry. Government policies geared toward improving the agriculture and agro-allied industry to help diversify the economy from overdependence on crude oil also make this sector strategic for us. Finally, the fintech industry has great potential for our transfer pricing services and other services considering how it is attracting significant FDI. Partnering with some of the start-up companies that have potential to grow will strategically serve us well in the medium to long term. As such, fintech is a strategic area that we want to solidify our presence. Once the pandemic is over, all these sectors will rebound to pre COVID-19 levels, and we have a diversified business model to take advantage of any opportunities that may come up in various sectors.

What are the main concerns for your international clients on doing business in Nigeria?

With the pandemic, most economies including Nigeria have experienced recessions and declining tax revenue. As such, there is significant regulatory pressures on these businesses. These are burning issues that most companies, including our international clients, face in Nigeria. In fact, because we are an independent firm that does not provide audit services to our clients, we have become advocates for some of them with the view that if government makes the regulatory environment too adversarial, it could have an adverse impact on FDI and the economy as a whole. From a tax and regulatory services perspective, we provide tax compliance, tax advisory, tax audits, transfer pricing services, data protection services, and other regulatory services across all industries. Moreover, with the economy emerging from a COVID-19-induced recession, our business advisory services division is well positioned to support businesses as they bounce back or try to achieve sustained high grow rates.

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