As easy as ABC: Ernst & Young, the tax and advisory services group, has launched its Africa Business Centre to expand and coordinate its practices across the continent, where it expects significant and rapid business growth in the next few years. The group, which has just celebrated 160 years in Africa, now has a presence in 29 countries but wants to give its clients a single point of contact.

“Ernst & Young continues to make appropriate investments in key African markets, – says Philip Hourquebie, Africa Ceo. “These investments will enable the firm to offer seamless consistent high quality service across Africa, as well as provide additional growth and development opportunities for all staff, which are at the heart of the profession and the firm’s success.”

The global firm strongly supports the African strategy. Jim Turley, chairman and Ceo of E&Y, is convinced that the continent’s growth will provide “needs for our services” and is investing aggressively in human resources to sustain business expansion. While during the economic slowdown rival accounting firms have put hiring freezes in place, says Turley, “we have continued to recruit”.

Ernst and Young’s African Investment Programme focuses on financial services as well the oil and gas, mining and metals and the telecommunications sectors, while the countries targeted for growth are South Africa, Nigeria and West Africa and Angola.

“We would be reluctant to share exact numbers, but we are looking at significant growth in partner and staff numbers for the geographies identified,” says Jackie Tong, director and Africa People Leader. “We tend to look widely and have a multi-pronged approach to recruiting, using recruiters and headhunters in both local and international markets as well as our own networks.”

As a rule, E&Y prefers to recruit locally when possible, says Tong: “To date the majority of our hires have been locals as we believe in building capacity on the ground. In most locations we are able to find appropriately skilled talent. We are anticipating challenges in recruiting Angolans with appropriate skills but, like other companies, we will be looking to recruit Angolans abroad who wish to return.”