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PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the world’s leading professional services firms, has shut down its nine African operations in Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Republic of Guinea, Senegal, and Equatorial Guinea. This follows after it undertook a strategic review to cut financial and reputational risks in too-risky or unprofitable markets.
The move is part of a broader initiative by PwC to streamline its global operations and address problems stemming from recent controversy over auditing. Specifically, the firm has faced regulatory scrutiny and fines in multiple countries due to auditing failures, prompting leadership to exert more control and refocus on core markets.
PwC’s chairman, Mohamed Kande, conceded that the firm’s performance in some of its high-profile cases had been “unacceptable” and fell short of the firm’s values. To rectify this, the company has started making staff cuts, delaying promotions, and restructuring parts of the business to save money and increase accountability, especially in areas of lower profitability and more risk exposure.
Despite these closures, PwC posted a 9% rise in revenue to £6.3 billion for 2024. These African closures are a strategic restructuring rather than an overall withdrawal from the continent. PwC retains a strong presence in Africa and will retain clients in the affected countries through other offices in the region where feasible.
The action underscores the balancing act between expansion in the emerging markets and maintaining best practices in compliance and risk management that international businesses must maintain. While African markets focused on in this action would have offered opportunity for growth, they also carried operational and regulatory pitfalls that PwC elected to skirt.
As the company consolidates its global position and recovers trust, its retreat from these nine markets signals movement toward more consolidated, better-controlled operations. Other multinationals observing may follow suit if such similar risks are found to be too costly.
